Crystagen

Human studies

PubMed has no clinical trial, case series or other study in which people were given Crystagen. The only human material in the indexed work is human cells grown in the laboratory, described below.

Who did the research

Every indexed study of Crystagen comes from Vladimir Khavinson's St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology or its collaborators. The primary studies appeared in Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, the English edition of a Russian journal, and in the Russian-language journal Advances in Gerontology (Uspekhi gerontologii), as their NLM Catalog records describe them. No independent replication appears in PubMed.

Human and animal cells in culture, 2011 (PMID: 22485217)

Design: laboratory cell study. Cells: normal human lymphocytes and granulocytes, embryonic mesenchymal stem cells (species not stated in the abstract), the rat fibroblast line KF-1 and the human leukemia cell line K-562. Peptides: the study tested T-36 (Glu-Asp-Pro) and T-38 (Lys-Glu-Asp) at 0.1, 1 and 10 ng/ml (PMID: 22485217; PMID: 22803085). The abstract gives only the codes; the sequences come from the institute's 2012 paper, and T-36 matches the Crystagen sequence (PMID: 22803085; PMID: 35887081). Results: both tripeptides, T-38 more strongly, slowed the proliferation of the embryonic stem cells, the KF-1 fibroblasts and the K-562 cells, although the same abstract also states that T-36 did not change K-562 proliferation. In the study, T-36 at 0.1 ng/ml increased the spontaneous proliferation of normal lymphocytes (PMID: 22485217). Neither peptide changed lymphocyte survival, adhesion, cytotoxic or induced proliferative activity, or granulocyte engulfment and bactericidal activity. The authors suggested that the slowed growth of embryonic and immortalized cells may reflect antitumor activity; the study used cell cultures only. The abstract reports no sample sizes.

Rat skin explants, 2012 (PMID: 22803085)

Design: organotypic culture (tissue pieces kept alive in a dish) of skin from young and old rats, treated with five tripeptides including T-36 (Glu-Asp-Pro), which matches the Crystagen sequence (PMID: 35887081). Results: in explants from young rats, every peptide except T-34 (Glu-Asp-Gly) stimulated cell proliferation, so T-36 did as well. In explants from old rats, the abstract reports a marked effect only for T-38 (Lys-Glu-Asp). Staining for the p53 protein suggested that the extra proliferation came with less apoptosis (programmed cell death). The abstract reports no animal numbers.

Spleen tissue during ageing, 2014, Russian language (PMID: 28976144)

Design: comparison of four short peptides, Vilon, Thymogen, Crystagen and a peptide coded R-1, in spleen tissue during ageing. Results from the English abstract: Vilon and R-1 activated T-helper cells, Thymogen activated B cells, and Crystagen activated B cells but did not produce cell renewal in the ageing spleen. The English abstract does not state the species, the model or the sample size.

Computer modeling, 2016 and 2022 (PMID: 27909961; PMID: 35887081)

A 2016 docking study modeled 19 short peptides bound to DNA and placed EDP at the DNA sequence agat (PMID: 27909961). A 2022 review docked Crystagen and 26 other short peptides against the amino-acid transporter LAT1 (PMID: 35887081). Both are predictions, not measurements.

What has not been studied

Apart from the 2014 spleen paper, whose English abstract does not describe its model, every indexed study of Crystagen used cells, tissue explants or computer models. Pharmacokinetic, toxicology and dose-finding studies of Crystagen are absent from PubMed.

Human data

PubMed lists no study of Crystagen in people, so no human adverse event data for Crystagen have been published in an indexed journal.

Animal and cell data

PubMed contains no animal toxicology study of Crystagen. In laboratory cultures of human blood cells, the tripeptide T-36 (Glu-Asp-Pro) did not change lymphocyte survival or granulocyte engulfment and bactericidal activity (PMID: 22485217; PMID: 22803085). That is a cell-culture finding and says nothing about safety in people.

Statements from the developers

A 2020 review from the Khavinson group states that peptides of this kind have virtually no side effects (PMID: 32987757). That statement concerns peptides in general and is not backed by a published safety study of Crystagen.