Abstract: With the improvement of people’s living standard, the number of patients with thromboembolism is increasing gradually. Among the existing thrombotic drugs, nattokinase attracts great attention due to its advantages of long half-life, strong specificity, small side effects, and can be taken orally directly. Based on the related research results at home and abroad, the structure features of nattokinase, the fibrinolytic activity and the mechanism of action of antithrombotic activity of NK are described. Also, the hard work in strain breeding, strain transformation for higher enzyme yield or better enzyme character and medium optimization are also summarized. Moreover, the physiological function of nattokinase are expounded. Finally, the challenges and future development trends of nattokinase application are prospected in order to provide theoretical basis for further research on nattokinase.