Peptide bioregulator

Bronchogen is the tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Leu (AEDL), the lung member of the Khavinson family. Unusually for this group, some of its literature is actually about the organ it is named after: peptide therapy modulated the morphofunctional state of bronchial epithelium in rats with obstructive lung pathology, and a companion Russian-language paper reported anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects in the same model. Its most cited result is physical rather than biological - bronchogen raises the melting temperature of calf thymus and mouse liver DNA by 3.1 °C, measured by scanning microcalorimetry, over a narrow range of peptide-to-DNA ratios. That is direct evidence it binds DNA, and no evidence at all about lungs. There is no human trial.

Cardiogen is sold as the heart bioregulator of the Khavinson family, usually given the sequence Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg (AEDR). There is no published research on it. Searching the literature for cardiogen as a peptide returns nothing relevant - and it returns a great deal that is irrelevant, because CardioGen-82 is a completely different product: a rubidium-82 generator used for cardiac PET imaging. That collision means a casual search appears to find literature where none exists. Searching instead for the sequence, or for a heart-designated Khavinson tetrapeptide, returns nothing at all. This entry exists to record that absence and to flag the name collision.

Cartalax is the tripeptide Ala-Glu-Asp (AED), one of the short "peptide bioregulators" developed by Vladimir Khavinson's group in St Petersburg and promoted for cartilage. In cell cultures it switched on cartilage-forming genes in aging human stem cells and lowered markers of aging in chondrocytes. There are no published human trials, and almost every study comes from the developers' own group.

Chonluten is a tripeptide derived from bronchial epithelial cells, the second lung-designated member of the Khavinson family alongside bronchogen. Its literature is essentially one study, but it is a better one than most in this group: an Italian group at the University of Chieti, working with the St Petersburg institute, tested five Khavinson peptides on human THP-1 monocytes. Chonluten inhibited tumor necrosis factor production by monocytes stimulated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide, all five peptides reduced LPS-stimulated TNF and IL-6 expression in differentiated cells, and all reduced adhesion of treated monocytes to activated endothelium. That is a coherent anti-inflammatory result in human cells, from a partly independent group. There is no animal study specific to chonluten in the indexed literature, and no human trial.

Cortagen is the tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro, the brain-cortex member of the Khavinson family. It has the most concrete animal result in the whole short-peptide program, and it is worth stating precisely: 10 µg/kg intramuscularly for ten days after the sciatic nerve was cut and sutured increased the growth rate of regenerating nerve fibers by 27% and their conduction velocity by 40%. That is a specific dose, a specific model, and two quantified outcomes - which is more than most compounds in this group offer. A follow-up examined delayed effects on injured nerve function, and a microarray study looked at gene expression in mouse heart. The human literature is a Russian-language report of Cortexin and Cortagen in chronic cerebral ischemia.

Crystagen is one of the immune-designated short peptides in the Khavinson family, and its indexed literature consists of a single Russian-language paper: a study of the molecular aspects of immunoprotective activity of Vilon, Timogen, Crystagen and R-1 in spleen during aging. That is the entire file. There is no animal efficacy study specific to it, no human study, no pharmacokinetics and no published sequence in the sources available here. Everything else asserted about it - the organ it regulates, what it does, how to take it - comes from sellers and from the general claims made for the family as a whole.

Epitalon is a four-amino-acid peptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly, designed in St Petersburg from the amino acid composition of Epithalamin — a bovine pineal gland extract — and later shown to be present in that extract. It is the peptide behind the claim that you can lengthen your telomeres, and that claim does rest on real experiments: Khavinson's group reported telomerase activation and telomere elongation in human fetal fibroblasts in 2003, and an independent laboratory reproduced dose-dependent telomere lengthening in human cell lines in 2025. What the marketing tends to blur is that the long-term human trials — the ones showing lower mortality in elderly cardiac patients — used Epithalamin, the extract, not the synthetic tetrapeptide, and that almost the entire literature on both comes from one research group.

Livagen is the tetrapeptide Lys-Glu-Asp-Ala, designed in the Khavinson program as the liver bioregulator. Its literature is narrower than vilon's and almost entirely about chromatin. In lymphocytes taken from elderly donors it activated ribosomal genes, decondensed pericentromeric structural heterochromatin and released genes that had been repressed by age-related condensation. It also reduced chromosomal aberrations induced by cobalt ions in cells from old donors. Beyond that there is a rat study of digestive enzyme activity, and that is close to the whole file. No animal lifespan study, no liver disease model, no human trial.

Ovagen is sold as one of the Khavinson organ peptides, usually given the sequence Glu-Asp-Leu and assigned to the liver or the ovary depending on the seller. There is no published research on it under that identity. Searching the literature returns a substantial set of papers - and every one of them is about a completely different product: Ovagen is the trade name of a veterinary follicle-stimulating hormone preparation used to superovulate goats, sheep and cattle. That is a pituitary gonadotrophin extract, not a tripeptide, and it has no relationship to the compound sold under this name to humans. This entry exists to record the absence of evidence and to flag the collision.

Pinealon is a three-amino-acid peptide, Glu-Asp-Arg, from the same St Petersburg program that produced epitalon — designed for the brain rather than the pineal gland despite the name. The cell work is real: it cuts reactive oxygen species and necrotic death in cerebellar granule neurons, neutrophils and PC12 cells, and its labeled form reaches the nucleus and binds DNA sequence-selectively. The animal work is more mixed than the marketing suggests. In old rats given it before carotid occlusion, survival improved but position-finding, motivational behavior and motor performance all fell and brain caspase-3 rose. The one human study — 32 patients, open, Russian-language — found Pinealon less effective than its sister peptide Vesugen, with prooxidant activity on chemiluminescence and a fall in circulating CD34+ cells that the authors read as inhibition of hemopoiesis.

Testagen is the tetrapeptide Lys-Glu-Asp-Gly (KEDG), designated the reproductive bioregulator in the Khavinson family and sold on the implication that it supports testicular function. Its indexed biological literature is one study, and that study is not about the testes: testagen was one of several fluorescently labeled peptides shown to enter the nucleus of HeLa cells and to bind deoxyribooligonucleotides with a preference for CAG-containing sequences. There is no study of testosterone, spermatogenesis, fertility or any reproductive endpoint. The only other indexed paper using the name is a 2025 materials-science study of testagen as a corrosion inhibitor on copper surfaces in saline, which is a legitimate use of a peptide and tells you nothing about biology.

Vesugen is the tripeptide Lys-Glu-Asp (KED), designated the vascular bioregulator in the Khavinson program. It appears in the single small human study this family has - 32 patients aged 41-83 with chronic polymorbidity and organic brain syndrome, in which Vesugen and pinealon were reported to slow biological-age indicators, with Vesugen the more effective of the two. The same study reported prooxidant activity on chemiluminescence and a fall in circulating CD34+ hematopoietic cells that the authors themselves flagged as needing further work. Beyond that its literature is vascular endothelial cell proliferation in aging, atherosclerosis and restenosis, neurogenesis in Alzheimer's disease and antihypoxic activity in rodents.

Vilon is the dipeptide Lys-Glu (KE), the shortest compound in the Khavinson bioregulator program and the thymic counterpart to epitalon. Its mouse data are the most substantial in this group: subcutaneous vilon from the sixth month of life increased physical activity and endurance, lowered body temperature, prolonged lifespan and prevented spontaneous tumors, with no unfavorable effects on development. It also has a genuinely interesting mechanistic result - DNA microarray of 15,247 clones in mouse heart found vilon changed expression of 36, and epitalon of 98, which is a specific and modest effect rather than the sweeping one the marketing implies. As with the rest of the program, the human work is chromatin studies in lymphocytes from elderly donors, not clinical trials.