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Four research peptides sitting at four different rungs of the evidence ladder — tissue repair, mitochondrial signalling, incretin metabolism and the growth-hormone axis. What each study design can answer, and which trials the field has not yet run.

SOURCES

Twenty-two references, numbered and attached

Every bracketed number on this site resolves here. Nothing is cited that is not listed, and nothing is listed that is not cited.

About these sources

Twenty-two references, grouped by compound in the order the compounds appear in the navigation. They include primary trial reports, mechanistic studies, pharmacokinetic characterisations, an observational cohort, a pooled safety analysis and two class reviews.

The list is deliberately visible as a whole, because the shape of it carries information the individual entries do not. Counting which compound contributes which kind of study reproduces the matrix without reading a word of the prose.

  1. Lee E, Burgess K. Safety of Intravenous Infusion of BPC157 in Humans: A Pilot Study. Altern Ther Health Med. 2025.
  2. McGuire FP, et al. Regeneration or Risk? A Narrative Review of BPC-157 for Musculoskeletal Healing. Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med. 2025.
  3. He L, et al. Pharmacokinetics, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of body-protective compound 157, a potential drug for treating various wounds, in rats and dogs. Front Pharmacol. 2022;13:1026182.
  4. Hsieh MJ, et al. Therapeutic potential of pro-angiogenic BPC157 is associated with VEGFR2 activation and up-regulation. J Mol Med (Berl). 2017;95:323-333.
  5. Xue XC, et al. Protective effects of pentadecapeptide BPC 157 on gastric ulcer in rats. World J Gastroenterol. 2004;10:1032-1037.
  6. Kumagai H, Kim SJ, Miller B, et al. MOTS-c modulates skeletal muscle function by directly binding and activating CK2. iScience. 2024;27(11):111212.
  7. Bolignano D, Greco M, Presta P, Duni A, et al. The Mitochondrial-Derived Peptide MOTS-c May Refine Mortality and Cardiovascular Risk Prediction in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients: A Multicenter Cohort Study. Blood Purification. 2024;53(10):824-837.
  8. Wan W, Zhang L, Lin Y, Rao X, Wang X, Hua F, Ying J. Mitochondria-derived peptide MOTS-c: effects and mechanisms related to stress, metabolism and aging. Journal of Translational Medicine. 2023;21(1):36.
  9. Reynolds JC, Lai RW, Woodhead JST, Joly JH, Mitchell CJ, Cameron-Smith D, Lu R, Cohen P, Graham NA, Benayoun BA, Merry TL, Lee C. MOTS-c is an exercise-induced mitochondrial-encoded regulator of age-dependent physical decline and muscle homeostasis. Nature Communications. 2021;12(1):470.
  10. Kim KH, Son JM, Benayoun BA, Lee C. The Mitochondrial-Encoded Peptide MOTS-c Translocates to the Nucleus to Regulate Nuclear Gene Expression in Response to Metabolic Stress. Cell Metabolism. 2018;28(3):516-524.e7.
  11. Lee C, Zeng J, Drew BG, Sallam T, Martin-Montalvo A, Wan J, Kim SJ, Mehta H, Hevener AL, de Cabo R, Cohen P. The mitochondrial-derived peptide MOTS-c promotes metabolic homeostasis and reduces obesity and insulin resistance. Cell Metabolism. 2015;21(3):443-454.
  12. Pham T, Taberner A, Hickey A, Han JC. Mitochondria-derived peptide MOTS-c restores mitochondrial respiration in type 2 diabetic heart. Frontiers in Physiology. 2025;16:1602271.
  13. Aronne LJ, et al. Tirzepatide as Compared with Semaglutide for the Treatment of Obesity. N Engl J Med. 2025.
  14. Farzam K, Patel P. Tirzepatide (StatPearls). StatPearls [Internet], NCBI Bookshelf. 2024.
  15. Zeng Q, et al. Safety issues of tirzepatide (pancreatitis and gallbladder or biliary disease) in type 2 diabetes and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023.
  16. Jastreboff AM, et al. Tirzepatide Once Weekly for the Treatment of Obesity. N Engl J Med. 2022.
  17. Frias JP, et al. Tirzepatide versus Semaglutide Once Weekly in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2021.
  18. Granata R, Leone S, Zhang X, Gesmundo I, et al. Growth hormone-releasing hormone and its analogues in health and disease. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2025;21(3):180-195.
  19. Henninge J, Pepaj M, Hullstein I, Hemmersbach P. Identification of CJC-1295, a growth-hormone-releasing peptide, in an unknown pharmaceutical preparation. Drug Test Anal. 2010;2(11-12):647-650.
  20. Sackmann-Sala L, Ding J, Frohman LA, Kopchick JJ. Activation of the GH/IGF-1 axis by CJC-1295, a long-acting GHRH analog, results in serum protein profile changes in normal adult subjects. Growth Horm IGF Res. 2009;19(6):471-477.
  21. Teichman SL, Neale A, Lawrence B, Gagnon C, Castaigne JP, Frohman LA. Prolonged stimulation of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I secretion by CJC-1295, a long-acting analog of GH-releasing hormone, in healthy adults. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006;91(3):799-805.
  22. Ionescu M, Frohman LA. Pulsatile secretion of growth hormone (GH) persists during continuous stimulation by CJC-1295, a long-acting GH-releasing hormone analog. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006;91(12):4792-4797.