#492 I Read All the Human Studies on the Most Popular Peptides - Here's What the Data Shows

Siim Land (0:00)

Peptides are everywhere right now. It seems that everyone online is taking something, BPC157, MOTS-C, Thymosine alpha-1, Epitalon, etc. Claiming they help with recovery, longevity, fat loss, even brain repair. But here's the problem. Most of these peptides have little to no human evidence. Some of them do, some of them don't. And that's exactly what I wanted to find out. So I went through every human clinical trial I could find on the most popular peptides. And the truth is surprising. In this video, I'm going to go through the human evidence peptide by peptide. Consider it to be the ultimate peptide masterclass. As a disclaimer, I'm in no way promoting these peptides. I just want to know what's the research behind them. I've divided the video into segments. Joint and regenerative peptides like BPC157, TB4, Thymosine alpha-1. Brain or neurological peptides or mitochondrial peptides such as epitalon, MkC, Humanin, Cerebrolysin and Semax. Growth hormone secretagogs, Cjc1295, Mk677, Tesamorelin and IgO1LR3. Lastly, aesthetics and looks peptides, copper GHK, Melanotan and red atruteide. Timestamps are below if you want to jump into specific compounds. Let's get on to it. Let's start with one of the most known peptides used for joint healing. Thymosine beta-4 or TB4 is a 43 amino acid peptide. TB500 and TB4 are essentially the same in purpose. TB500 is the synthetic, shorter fragment. Your body produces TB4 naturally and is concentrated in platelets, the thymus, immune cells, endothelium and injured tissues. Its main job is to repair, help with cell migration, regeneration, stem cell function and controlling inflammation. TB4 was originally identified in thymic extracts and shown to influence lymphoid stem cell maturation. The thymus gland is what regulates your immune cells. High levels of TB4 in serum or fluid correlate with better health outcomes in liver failure, coronary artery disease and scleroderma lung disease. Which means that people who have higher TB4, whether because they're slightly healthier or their body produces more of it for some reason, have better outcomes in certain chronic diseases. Now people online are taking TB4 or TB500 for the sake of joint healing and sometimes wound healing.

In a 1999 study on rats, TB4 both topically and injected accelerated wound healing. TB4 treated wounds closed up 61 to 62% faster than saline treated controls by day 7 That's a highly significant improvement in healing speed. There is some preclinical and early clinical data suggesting that TB4 accelerates wound healing and treatment of ulcers. In mice, TB4 enhances fracture healing. They also see greater bone mineralization and increase in bone stiffness. Unfortunately, there are no human clinical trials on TB4 or TB500 at the moment, at least in the context of joint healing and wound healing. However, there are clinical trials on TB4 for the use of eye health. In 2006, topical TB4 eye drops were first used to treat persistent corneal wound due to diabetes. By day 11 of taking TB4 four times a day, the patient had significant reduction in ocular inflammation and a cornea had re-epithelialized. A 2010 study took nine patients with chronic non-healing neurotrophic corneal defects and gave them TB4 eye drops for 28 or 49 days. Six patients saw dramatic healing, whereas three had no clear improvement. To be fair, the sample size of this study was quite small and 30% of the patients saw no improvement. So it's not possible to say if TB4 conclusively improves corneal inflammation. A 2015 phase II clinical trial saw that TB4 eye drops in 72 patients with dry eye syndrome had no significant effect on corneal discomfort or staining, but they did show measurable protection against worsening symptoms and corneal damage. Another 2015 phase II trial saw the same. TB4 improved signs and symptoms of severe dry eye. Now there are quite a lot of human clinical trials on TB4 and its safety.

A 2010 phase I randomness control trial gave intravenous TB4 to 80 healthy adults aged 18 to 79 The procedure was seen to be safe and without toxicity. Another 2010 randomness control trial on 10 healthy volunteers saw also good safety data from IV TB4. In a 2021 phase I clinical trial on 84 healthy volunteers, TB4 was well tolerated at 25 micrograms per kilogram as a single dose and 5 micrograms per kilogram in multiple doses for 10 days. TB4 was shown to have very low immunogenicity, which means that it evoked no significant immune response. So TB4 seems to be at least safe. It's been tested in humans several times, even in large doses, and doesn't seem to cause any negative side effects. In animals, it also appears to help with wound healing and inflammation. But there's no data in humans. The human data we do have suggests that it protects the cornea of the eyes. Overall, my rating for TB4 based on the studies that I read is 3.5 out of 5 It's only limited by the lack of human evidence for joint healing. Next up we have Thymacin alpha-1. Thymacin alpha-1 is a 28 amino acid peptide naturally found in the thymus. It's known for its immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and anti-tumor activities. Thymacin alpha-1 acts by stimulating the innate and adaptive immune system, primarily through toll-like receptor activation, T-cell maturation and restoration, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects and anti-tumor effects. The synthetic version of thymacin alpha-1, thymalfacin, also called Zadaxin, is clinically approved in over 35 countries for diseases such as chronic hepatitis B and C, sepsis, HIV, certain cancers and as a vaccine adjuvant. As I said earlier, the thymus is an organ that regulates the immune system, but unfortunately it loses its function during aging. Preclinical and clinical studies show that thymacin alpha-1 can improve vaccine response in the elderly and mitigate immunosensence via the thymus. This is especially relevant since 70-year-olds have less than 10% of the thymic size since they were born, and that thymic tissue is being replaced with fat tissue and perivascular space. If something like thymacin alpha-1 could counteract that degradation or make up for the loss of immune system function, it would extend the health span of elderly people who have a weaker immune system. Usually biohackers and health enthusiasts take thymacin alpha-1 to support their immune system, especially in regards to the thymic volume and as a general anti-aging peptide.