Sensitive substrate for continuous assays and in situ determination of the matrix metalloproteinase activity. When cleaved at the Gly-Leu bond it separates the highly fluorescent Mca group from the efficient 2,4-dinitrophenyl quencher and results in the increase of fluorescence intensity. The kcat/km value for the punctuated metalloproteinase (MMP-7) and for gelatinase (MMP-2), e.g., are 1.7 x 105 and 6.3 x 105 M-1s-1, respectively. ONE-LETTER SEQUENCE: Mca-PLA-Nva-Dap(Dnp)-AR-NH2MOLECULAR FORMULA: C49H68N14O15MOLECULAR WEIGHT:1093.16STORAGE CONDITIONS: -20 5C, CAS REGISTRY NUMBER: [256394-92-0], SYNONYMS: Mca-Pro-Leu-Ala-Nva-Dap(Dnp)-Ala-Arg-NHRESEARCH AREA: CancerREFERENCES: G. Murphy, et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269, 6632 (1994)