Patent ID: 8765441

Claim:
A protease that decomposes proteins recalcitrant to proteolysis, wherein: the protease is obtained by cultivating the strain Streptomyces sp. 99-GP-2D-5 (FERM P-19336) in a culture medium and isolating the protease from the culture medium; the protease comprises an N terminus having the amino acid sequence Tyr Asp Leu Val Gly Asp Ala Tyr Tyr Ile Gly (SEQ I.D. NO.: 1); the molecular weight of the protease is 19,327 as determined by mass spectrometry, the optimum pH for the decomposing is 9 to 12 and the optimum temperature for the decomposing is 60-70° C.; the proteins recalcitrant to proteolysis include at least one protein selected from the group consisting of perchloric acid-soluble protein PSP and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease-derived and scrapie-derived abnormal prion proteins.