Category · 25 entries
Research & Experimental
Peptides in early research without established clinical use.
ACE-031
A myostatin decoy receptor that raised lean mass after one dose in healthy women; its Duchenne trial was stopped in 2013 over nosebleeds and dilated vessels.
Adipotide
A preclinical concept that killed white adipose tissue by inducing vasculature apoptosis in obese rhesus monkeys — dramatic weight loss, but also nephrotoxicity that stopped it from advancing to humans.
Balixafortide
A CXCR4-blocking peptide that mobilised stem cells and shrank breast tumours in early trials, then stopped in phase 3.
Bioactive Food Peptides
The hidden pharmacology of food — bioactive peptide fragments released during digestion of milk, meat, fish, and plant proteins, including casomorphins, lactokinins, and ACE-inhibitory peptides.
Cilengitide
The RGD peptide that was supposed to starve glioblastoma: encouraging early trials, then a phase 3 trial with identical survival in both arms.
Copper Cu 64 dotatate
The copper-64 version of the neuroendocrine tumour PET scan: a longer-lived label that ships ready to inject and, in one head-to-head study, found more true lesions.
Depreotide
A technetium-99m somatostatin-receptor tracer once approved to help tell malignant lung nodules from benign ones; accurate in trials but no better than CT in a later comparison, and now discontinued.
Dermorphin
⚠ Potent mu-opioid agonist — ~30–40× more potent than morphine; has been misused as a horse-racing doping agent and carries serious overdose/dependence risk. Included for reference and harm-reduction only. Not a therapeutic or "longevity" peptide.
Edotreotide
The other octreotide-based tracer: approved with gallium-68 for PET scans, and in late-stage trials with lutetium-177 as a tumour-killing therapy.
Fexapotide
A one-shot prostate injection that kills gland cells and spares nerves in rats: long-term phase 3 follow-up reports fewer surgeries, from trials run with its developer.
Follistatin-315
The full-length follistatin found in human blood: it keeps an acidic tail that weakens its grip on cell surfaces, so it circulates while the shorter FS288 stays tissue-bound.
Follistatin-344
The myostatin blocker tested only as gene therapy in six men, sold online in vials that often do not contain it.
Gallium Ga 68 dotatate
A radiolabelled octreotate peptide that lights up somatostatin receptors on neuroendocrine tumours, with sensitivity above 90% in pooled studies.
Gozetotide
The PSMA PET tracer that finds prostate cancer spread that CT and bone scans miss, and selects patients for Pluvicto. First approved in 2020; sold as Locametz, Illuccix and Gozellix.
IGF-1 DES(1-3)
Deleting the first three amino acids of IGF-1 cripples IGFBP binding while preserving receptor activity — giving DES(1-3) roughly 10× the in vitro potency of native IGF-1 at promoting cell growth in IGFBP-rich environments.
IGF-1 LR3
IGF-1 rebuilt so its binding proteins barely hold it: more potent than IGF-1 in rats, cleared faster, and never given to a person in a published study.
Indium In 111 pentetreotide
The first peptide-receptor imaging agent: an indium-labelled octreotide that made neuroendocrine tumours visible, since largely overtaken by gallium-68 and copper-64 PET.
Lutetium-177 DOTATATE
A targeted radiotherapy peptide — a somatostatin analog armed with a radioactive warhead that delivers lethal radiation directly to neuroendocrine tumor cells expressing sst2 receptors.
MGF
The IGF-1 splice variant muscle makes after loading, sold online as a synthetic fragment that has never been given to a person in a study.
PEG-MGF
A pegylated fragment of a proposed muscle-specific IGF-1 splice variant — the underlying "MGF" biology remains scientifically contested, and PEG-MGF itself has no human clinical data.
PNC-27
An experimental anticancer peptide engineered to selectively disrupt cancer cell membranes that overexpress HDM-2 — preclinical research only.
Tecemotide
A MUC1 peptide vaccine for lung cancer that missed in phase 3 overall but showed a ten-month survival gain in one subgroup.
Tesofensine
A triple monoamine reuptake inhibitor, not a peptide: 9 to 11% more weight loss than placebo at 24 weeks in phase 2, a faster heart rate, a ten-day half-life, and no approval anywhere.
Vipivotide Tetraxetan
A PSMA-seeking molecule that carries radioactive lutetium-177 into prostate cancer cells. Approved as Pluvicto in 2022, it extended survival in the VISION trial and is now also approved earlier in the disease.
Zoptarelin Doxorubicin
An LHRH agonist carrying doxorubicin into receptor-positive tumours: encouraging phase 2 responses, then no better than plain doxorubicin in a 511-patient phase 3.