Best Peptides for Longevity & Anti-Aging — 2026

Rapamycin is a macrocyclic lactone antibiotic discovered in 1972 in soil samples from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) by a bacteriology survey team investigating indigenous Streptomyces species. Named after its place of discovery, rapamycin was initially developed as an antifungal agent…

Metformin is a biguanide-class oral antihyperglycemic medication that has been in continuous clinical use since 1957 (in France under the brand name Glucophage) and is now the most-prescribed diabetes medication worldwide with over 150 million prescriptions annually. Structurally…

Fisetin is a polyhydroxy flavonoid (3,3',4',7-tetrahydroxyflavone) that has emerged as one of the most extensively studied natural senolytic compounds and a candidate therapy for age-related disease. Structurally it is a flavonol closely related to quercetin but with one fewer h…

Dasatinib (SPRYCEL) is a second-generation oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) with FDA approvals for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL). It is also, critically for longevity medicine, the "D" component of t…

FOXO4-DRI is a synthetic 34-amino-acid D-retro-inverso peptide designed to disrupt the interaction between the FOXO4 transcription factor and p53, with the specific goal of inducing apoptosis selectively in senescent cells. The compound was developed by the laboratory of Peter de…

Spermidine is a naturally-occurring polyamine essential for cellular growth, division, and differentiation in all living organisms. It was first isolated from semen (hence the name) in the 17th century by Anton van Leeuwenhoek, but is synthesized endogenously by all mammalian ce…

Pterostilbene is a naturally-occurring stilbene polyphenol (trans-3,5-dimethoxy-4'-hydroxystilbene) that is structurally and functionally related to resveratrol but has substantially superior pharmacokinetic properties. Chemically, pterostilbene differs from resveratrol by the r…

Urolithin A (3,8-dihydroxy-6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran-6-one; trade name Mitopure from Timeline Nutrition, formerly Amazentis) is a gut-microbiome-derived metabolite of dietary ellagitannins — polyphenolic compounds found in pomegranates, walnuts, strawberries, raspberries, and several …

Astaxanthin is a red-orange keto-carotenoid xanthophyll, chemically classified as a 3,3''-dihydroxy-beta,beta-carotene-4,4''-dione. Unlike beta-carotene, astaxanthin does not convert to vitamin A in mammals, which eliminates concerns about vitamin A toxicity at high supplementat…

Quercetin is a polyhydroxylated flavonoid compound (chemically 3,3',4',5,7-pentahydroxyflavone) that occurs widely in edible plants as both the free aglycone and a family of glycosides including rutin (quercetin-3-O-rutinoside), isoquercitrin (quercetin-3-O-glucoside), quercitri…

Apigenin is a plant-derived flavone (4',5,7-trihydroxyflavone) that occurs widely in the plant kingdom as a constituent of leaves, flowers, and seeds. Structurally it is a flavone — distinguished from flavonols like quercetin and fisetin by the absence of a 3-hydroxyl group — gi…

Hydroxytyrosol (3,4-dihydroxyphenylethanol, abbreviated HT or 3,4-DHPEA) is the smallest of the natural phenolic compounds produced by the olive tree and — pharmacologically — the single most important molecule in the olive polyphenol family. Chemically, hydroxytyrosol is a catec…

Oleocanthal — more precisely (-)-oleocanthal, or p-HPEA-EDA (para-hydroxyphenylethanol elenolic acid dialdehyde) — is the pungent phenolic secoiridoid that gives fresh, high-polyphenol extra-virgin olive oil its characteristic throat-biting, pepper-like sensation when swallowed. …

Sulforaphane is an organosulfur compound belonging to the isothiocyanate family, found predominantly in cruciferous vegetables (Brassicaceae family) including broccoli, broccoli sprouts, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, bok choy, and collard greens. Sulforaphane has…

Curcumin is the principal bioactive polyphenol extracted from the rhizome of Curcuma longa (turmeric), constituting approximately 2-8% of dried turmeric root by weight along with two related curcuminoids (demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin). The bright orange-yellow pigme…

Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid — a naturally occurring plant secondary metabolite with a characteristic yellow color — extracted from the roots, rhizomes, stems, and bark of several plant genera including Berberis (barberry, Oregon grape), Coptis (goldthread), Hydrastis (g…

Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the most abundant and biologically active catechin polyphenol in green tea (Camellia sinensis), typically constituting 50-80% of total catechins in dried green tea leaves. EGCG has emerged over the past two decades as one of the most extensivel…

NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, oxidized form) is a pyridine dinucleotide coenzyme essential to energy metabolism, DNA repair via PARP enzymes, sirtuin-mediated gene regulation, and calcium signaling via CD38. Intracellular NAD+ declines by roughly 50% between ages 40 an…

Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) is a naturally occurring nucleotide derived from ribose and nicotinamide, serving as the direct biosynthetic precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) via a single enzymatic step catalyzed by nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransf…

Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ, methoxatin) is a small tricyclic o-quinone originally discovered in 1964 as the prosthetic group of bacterial methanol dehydrogenase. In methylotrophic and methanotrophic bacteria (organisms that live on methane or methanol), PQQ serves as a redox …

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), also known as ubiquinone-10, ubidecarenone, or simply "coenzyme Q," is a lipid-soluble benzoquinone compound with a 50-carbon isoprenoid side chain (decaprenyl tail) that anchors it within the inner mitochondrial membrane. Its name — ubiquinone — reflects it…

Glutathione is the body's most abundant intracellular antioxidant — a three-amino-acid peptide made of glutamate, cysteine, and glycine (Glu-Cys-Gly), present in millimolar concentrations inside every cell of your body. It is not a research peptide in the same sense as [BPC-157](…

TUDCA (tauroursodeoxycholic acid) is a hydrophilic bile acid formed by taurine conjugation of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA, the active ingredient in the widely-prescribed cholestasis medication Ursodiol). TUDCA occurs naturally in the bile of bears (particularly Asiatic black bears…

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is the acetylated form of the amino acid L-cysteine — a small thiol-containing molecule that serves as a rate-limiting precursor for glutathione (GSH) synthesis and, independently, as a direct antioxidant and mucolytic agent. Discovered in the 1960s as a mu…

Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), also known as thioctic acid or 1,2-dithiolane-3-pentanoic acid, is a sulfur-containing eight-carbon fatty acid derivative synthesized endogenously in mitochondria by lipoic acid synthase (LIAS). In its native biological role, ALA serves as an essential co…

Epithalon (also spelled **Epitalon**, sequence **Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly / AEDG**) is a synthetic tetrapeptide designed by Prof. Vladimir Khavinson at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology in the 1980s as a short-chain analog of **epithalamin**, a peptide extract …

GHK-Cu (copper peptide, glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine:copper(II)) is a naturally occurring tripeptide-copper complex with the amino acid sequence Gly-His-Lys chelated to a copper(II) ion. It has a molecular weight of 403.93 Da and a CAS number of 49557-75-7. GHK-Cu was first identif…

Humanin is a 24-amino-acid peptide (MAPRGFSCLLLLTSEIDLPVKRRA) encoded within the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA gene and translated from a short open reading frame that was not recognized as biologically active until 2001, when Hashimoto and colleagues identified it in a screen …

MOTS-c (Mitochondrial ORF of the Twelve S rRNA type-c) is a **16-amino-acid mitochondrial-derived peptide** — a member of a recently discovered class of small peptides encoded in mitochondrial DNA rather than nuclear DNA. It was first characterized and named by [Lee et al. in 201…

Cartalax is a short synthetic peptide developed in Russia by Vladimir Khavinson and colleagues at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, positioned as a "cartilage bioregulator" intended to support chondrocyte function, cartilage matrix synthesis, and joi…

Vesugen is a short synthetic peptide developed within Vladimir Khavinson's laboratory at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology and marketed in Russia as an oral capsule for vascular and endothelial system support. The reported sequence is a tripeptide, H…

Cardiogen is a short synthetic peptide developed in Russia by Vladimir Khavinson and his collaborators at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, positioned as a "myocardial bioregulator" intended to support cardiomyocyte function, vascular endothelium, an…

Cortagen is a synthetic tetrapeptide (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly) from the Khavinson bioregulator family developed at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. It is organ-targeted to cardiac and coronary tissue, studied for cardiac function preservation and coronary ar…

Vilon is the simplest member of Vladimir Khavinson's short-peptide bioregulator catalog — a dipeptide of lysine and glutamic acid (H-Lys-Glu-OH, abbreviated KE). Developed at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology in the late 1990s as a synthetic follow-o…

Pinealon is a **synthetic tripeptide — glutamyl-aspartyl-arginine (Glu-Asp-Arg, or EDR)** — developed by the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology (IBG) under the leadership of **Professor Vladimir Khavinson**, the dominant figure in what is collectively known …

Livagen is a short synthetic peptide developed in Russia by Vladimir Khavinson and his collaborators at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, positioned as a "liver bioregulator" intended to normalise age-related and stress-related changes in hepatic tis…

Thymalin is a thymus-derived peptide complex developed in the 1970s by Vladimir Khavinson and the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology as part of a broader program to identify tissue-specific regulatory peptides from mammalian organs. Produced…