Reference

5-Amino-1MQ is not a peptide at all; it is built as a small chemical compound rather than a chain of linked amino acids, and it works by blocking an enzyme called NNMT that cells use during energy processing.

Adalank comes from chemists altering Selank in the lab; Selank itself is a short manmade peptide built originally from tuftsin, a natural peptide involved in immune signalling.

Adamax is a lab-built variant of Semax, a peptide studied in Russia for decades for its effects on memory and brain protection.

Adipotide is a lab-made compound built from two joined parts: one part latches onto the network of small blood vessels supplying white body fat, while the other part carries a signal that causes those vessel-lining cells to die off.

AHK-Cu is a copper complex made in the lab, joining three linked amino acids to a single copper ion; it sits close to a natural molecule called GHK-Cu, differing from it by only one building block.

AOD-9604 is a piece cut from human growth hormone and built in the lab; it uses only the final stretch of the hGH chain with one extra amino acid attached, and it was made to trigger fat breakdown while skipping the wider growth-promoting effects that come with the full-length hormone.

Cibinetide, the other name for Ara-290, is a synthetic peptide designed from a segment of erythropoietin, the natural driver behind the body's production of red blood cells; scientists changed it so that it flips on a different pathway instead, one linked to repairing tissue.

Made in the lab, BPC-157 is built from a chain of fifteen amino acids and is based on a protective protein that occurs naturally in stomach juice.

Bromantane is a small synthetic molecule developed in Russia in the 1980s to help sustain physical performance under stress, such as heat or fatigue.

Cagrilintide is a manmade copy of amylin built to last much longer in the body; amylin itself is a natural hormone that plays a role in appetite and in keeping blood sugar steady.

Cardiogen came out of a Russian research program that studies short peptides the group calls bioregulators; it is built in the lab from a chain of just four amino acids.

Cartalax was built in a lab from a short chain of three linked amino acids; researchers first spotted this sequence in kidney tissue, and the same three-part pattern also turns up inside a natural collagen protein that helps make up cartilage.

Made from pig brain tissue and standardized batch to batch, Cerebrolysin is a mixture of small peptide fragments and free amino acids, studied for its possible role in protecting nerves and supporting their growth.

Chemists built CJC-1295 with DAC by altering growth hormone-releasing hormone, the body's own chemical cue that prompts the pituitary gland to put out growth hormone, so that it would act for much longer.

Mod GRF 1-29 is another name for CJC-1295 without DAC, a modified fragment of growth hormone-releasing hormone.

Cyclic glycine-proline, or cGP, is a tiny peptide built from only two amino acids joined into a closed ring, and the human body already makes it on its own.

Dihexa is a small laboratory-made compound that grew out of research on angiotensin IV, a fragment tied to blood-pressure regulation.

DSIP, the short name for Delta Sleep-Inducing Peptide, is built from nine linked amino acids; researchers first isolated it and worked out its structure from rabbit brain tissue in 1977.

Eloralintide is an experimental, laboratory-made hormone analog developed by a pharmaceutical company as a candidate obesity treatment.

Epitalon is a four-amino-acid peptide copied from a substance the pineal gland, a small gland deep in the brain, makes on its own.

Follistatin 344 is a protein the body produces naturally, and its job is to hold back two growth-limiting signals, myostatin and a related one called activin A, both of which act as brakes on muscle growth.

FOXO4-DRI is a laboratory-built peptide designed to clear out senescent cells, aging, damaged cells that pile up over time and send inflammatory signals out into the surrounding tissue.

Three amino acids linked to a single copper ion form GHK-Cu, a compound already present in blood, saliva, and skin throughout the body.

GHRP-6, a laboratory-made chain of six amino acids, dates back to the 1980s, when it was among the earliest compounds built to prompt the body into releasing more of its own growth hormone.

Made of three amino acids joined together, glutathione occurs naturally inside almost all of the body's cells, where it helps guard against chemical damage and is often nicknamed the body's chief antioxidant.

HCG is a hormone the placenta produces naturally during pregnancy, and a pharmaceutical version manufactured from purified urine or through recombinant technology is approved for several specific reproductive-health uses.

Hexarelin, also called Examorelin, is a laboratory-made six-amino-acid peptide developed from an earlier growth-hormone-releasing compound.

HGH, known by its pharmaceutical name somatropin, matches the hormone that the pituitary gland makes on its own; modern supplies are grown using recombinant technology so the resulting molecule is chemically identical to what the body produces naturally.

IGF-1 LR3 is a laboratory-modified version of insulin-like growth factor-1, a growth factor the body already makes.

Built from five amino acids, the basic building blocks of proteins, Ipamorelin is a small peptide made in a laboratory.

Kisspeptin is a family of natural signaling molecules made from the KISS1 gene, best known for switching on the brain cells that start the reproductive hormone system.

KPV is a very small, lab made peptide with only three amino acids to its name, snipped off the tail end of a bigger hormone the body makes naturally, alpha-MSH.

The body assembles L-carnitine on its own out of two amino acids, lysine and methionine.

Livagen is a lab made peptide built from four amino acids, developed by a research team in St Petersburg, Russia, led by Vladimir Khavinson, as a synthetic version of a natural substance drawn from liver tissue.

LL-37 stands alone as the single antimicrobial peptide that the body produces internally, part of a peptide family called cathelicidins, natural germ-fighting molecules.

Scientists built mazdutide in the lab using oxyntomodulin, a hormone the gut makes naturally, as the template, then engineered it to flip on two separate hormone switches together, one tied to GLP-1 and one to glucagon; that dual action is why the field calls it a dual agonist.

Melanotan I, also known by its approved name afamelanotide, is a laboratory-built copy of a hormone the pituitary gland makes naturally; it mainly turns on one type of skin-cell receptor tied to melanin production, the pigment that gives skin its color.

A university research lab first built Melanotan II, a lab made analog of the natural hormone alpha-MSH, as a way to darken skin without sun exposure.

MK-677, also called Ibutamoren, is built as a single, compact molecule rather than a strung-together sequence of amino acids, which is why researchers do not classify it as a peptide even though it works on a related hormone system.

MOTS-c is a peptide of just 16 amino acids with an unusual origin: its instructions sit in the DNA inside mitochondria, the parts of the cell that generate energy, rather than in the cell's main nuclear DNA.

NA Semax Amidate is a chemically modified version of Semax, a nootropic, meaning thinking-focused, peptide first developed in Russia from a fragment of a natural pituitary hormone.

NAD+ is not a peptide but a coenzyme, a small helper molecule built from two joined nucleotide units, present inside every cell in the body.

Also known as Noopept, omberacetam is a small, lab made compound built from two amino-acid-like units.

Rather than a peptide, orforglipron is a small molecule that activates the same gut hormone receptor targeted by injectable weight and diabetes drugs.

Ovagen is a lab-made chain of three amino acids, sometimes called EDL after the initials of its building blocks.

Oxytocin is a short chain of nine amino acids that the brain makes on its own, released from a gland at the base of the brain called the pituitary.

P21, sometimes written P021, strings together four amino acids taken from a small active piece of a natural nerve-cell survival protein called ciliary neurotrophic factor, or CNTF, and made in a lab.

PE-22-28, also called Mini-Spadin, is made in a lab from just seven amino acids, a short stretch lifted out of a larger peptide called Spadin.

Mechano growth factor is a natural muscle-repair signal, itself a variant of a protein called IGF-1 that muscle tissue produces after mechanical stress or injury; PEG-MGF is a chemically altered copy of that signal.

Sometimes called EDR after its three building-block amino acids, Pinealon is made in a lab and comes out of a Russian research effort into short peptides known as bioregulators.

Designed at a US medical school, PNC-27 is a peptide of 32 amino acids built in a lab by joining two separate pieces: a fragment of a tumor-suppressor protein called p53 and a second piece that helps the whole chain cross into a cell.

Prostamax, sometimes called KEDP after its building blocks, strings together four amino acids in a lab and comes from the same Russian bioregulator research program that produced several other short peptides aimed at specific organs.

PT-141, known by its chemical name bremelanotide, is a lab-made peptide that switches on a family of brain receptors called melanocortin receptors rather than acting on blood vessels the way older sexual-function medicines do.

Retatrutide is a lab-made peptide currently moving through late-stage human trials rather than sitting on pharmacy shelves.

Made in a lab from seven amino acids, Selank takes tuftsin, a peptide that the body's immune system makes on its own, as its starting template, and was developed by researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

GLP-1 is a natural gut hormone, and Semaglutide reproduces it in lab-made form, redesigned so it keeps working in the body for roughly a week rather than fading within minutes.

ACTH is a hormone the body produces naturally, and a small piece of it forms the seven-amino-acid backbone of Semax, assembled in a lab.

Growth hormone-releasing hormone, or GHRH, is the natural cue the body sends to prompt the pituitary gland into releasing growth hormone, and Sermorelin, built in a lab from 29 amino acids, copies the working part of that signal.

Made in a lab at Saint Louis University, SLU-PP-332 is a compact molecule built from ordinary chemistry rather than a peptide, designed to switch on a group of cell receptors called estrogen-related receptors.

SNAP-8 is a lab-made chain of eight amino acids, the small building blocks proteins are made from, designed to copy part of a nerve-signaling protein called SNAP-25.

SS-31, known in the scientific literature as elamipretide, is a small lab-made peptide built to travel inside cells and reach the mitochondria, the structures that make a cell's energy.

Survodutide is a lab-made peptide built from 29 amino acids and carrying an attached fat molecule that slows how quickly the body clears it.

Copied from one small section of a larger, naturally occurring protein called thymosin beta-4, TB-500 strings together just seven amino acids in a lab-made chain.

Growth hormone-releasing hormone is the body's own instruction to release growth hormone from the pituitary gland, and Tesamorelin is a laboratory-made version of that signal.

Tesofensine is a small manufactured molecule, not a peptide, first studied as a possible treatment for Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Testagen is a very short, lab-made peptide made of just four amino acids, developed by a Russian research group studying so-called bioregulators, short peptides proposed to act on gene activity inside specific organs.

Thymalin is a mixture of short protein fragments that Russian researchers pulled from calf thymus tissue in the 1970s; Russia has listed it as a registered pharmaceutical there since the early 1980s.

The thymus gland naturally makes a hormone that Thymosin Alpha 1 matches exactly, amino acid for amino acid across all 28, though the version used in research and medicine is made in a lab.

The body already produces Thymosin Beta-4 on its own, a peptide built from 43 amino acids, and it is the parent molecule that the shorter research compound TB-500 was derived from.

Thymulin is a very small natural hormone, just nine amino acids long, made only by cells lining the thymus gland and first described by researchers in 1977.

Tirzepatide is made in a lab to switch on two different gut-hormone receptors together, GIP and GLP-1, both part of the body's normal system for managing blood sugar and appetite after eating.

TRT stands for testosterone replacement therapy, an approved medical treatment category rather than a single research compound.

Made in a lab from just three amino acids, Vesugen comes from the Russian bioregulator research program behind several other ultra-short peptides in this reference.

VIP, short for vasoactive intestinal peptide, is a signal built from 28 amino acids that arises naturally in the body, one that nerve cells throughout the body use to communicate.