Introduction
It ignited a firestorm of other investigators searching for peptide solutions to problems. We know many of the systems in the body slow as we age. There is value in restoring those systems.
Many times, we need to supplement what the body is doing to remain healthy. Sometimes that is replacing the hormones we are no longer producing. The basic premise is that the better job we do maintaining healthy systems, the less work there is to do later.
Lifestyle behavior is the starting point. Good diet. Adhering to natural circadian rhythms is important. Being active is critical. 'If you don't use it you lose it.'
Measuring matters too. It is hard to know what systems need help if we don't look at the gauges. Testing is a premise.
What the Russians developed
The Russians were first to develop what became known as bioregulators. They are like peptides and proteins in that they are strings of amino acids with peptide bonds. Often, they are only a few amino acids long. They tend to work if administered orally.
This is what began my venture into this field. I became aware of the Russian scientists' work in the 1990s.
How I first got them
Those products weren't available in the US, and I ordered 20 to 30 boxes from Russia. They arrived in nice, packaged blister packs with about 30 capsules on a card and several cards in each box. You pushed them out of the back of the blister pack and through the foil.
The problem was that all of the descriptive writing was in Russian. That was long before you could open Google Translate and take a photo to translate. I had about 30 bioregulators, and with everything labeled in Russian, I was stuck figuring out what each one was and what it was used for.
Most were designed to optimize a system. For example, one was branded Chemo Hart. Not surprising, it was to tune up and optimize cardiovascular function.
These products have been huge successes in Russia. I read that the immune stimulator product had maybe 20 million product purchases. It was even given after the Chernobyl disaster.
The FDA issue in the US
So before we get into some specific discussion about different peptide and bioregulator uses, I want to revisit the FDA action in the US that happened in 2025.
As I stated in that earlier post, there is an active effort to restrict GLP peptides to only the use approved for the big pharmaceutical companies. There are approvals for some products for specific disease indications. There is the premise that you can't patent a product found in nature. As a result, that removes the huge potential revenue and profit. Before a drug company goes through the expense of a large trial they want to know they won't have competition from other companies in making profit to pay for that start-up expense.
As I mentioned in that previous article the genie is out of the bottle. Those generic products are manufactured around the world. They will likely remain available if you know where to look.
I have seen several of the large US companies that have sold them make statements that they will no longer offer them. One of those large companies said it will keep offering them, but under a new brand name it controls. Will that keep the FDA at bay? Who knows?
There is likely a short window to obtain them if that is your intent. There are many peptides that have similar actions and aren't targeted at this time. We'll get into that discussion when we start writing about specific peptides.
What we still don't know (and what we do)
As I have alluded to in this series of articles, there are many known peptides and bioregulators that have been researched. These are small molecules. Doubtless there are likely many that remain undiscovered.
This does require significant research capabilities to identify and isolate. Then there is the manufacturing side of the equation in reassembling to test and prove purification and effectiveness.
There is also the 'synthetic' side of the equation. When we hear synthetic, our mind automatically jumps to thinking of a petroleum-based product given to imitate the wanted effect. In this arena of peptide science, it is often the recreation of an amino acid chain that has that same effect.
Here's an interesting example that we'll dig into later.
A growth hormone example
Native human growth hormone (GH) is a 191-amino acid peptide that binds the GH receptor and triggers a wide range of systemic effects, including growth promotion, IGF-1 production, changes in glucose and insulin dynamics, and effects on many tissues. We have it in high concentrations when we are young and growing.
After the late teens, its production falls off. It continues to decline with age. The FDA doesn't want it to be used for anything, with a few exceptions like dwarfism.
Because of that, researchers looked for smaller pieces of GH that might keep some benefits without the growth effects. They were able to isolate a short C-terminal segment, amino acids 176 to 191, and then modify it (AOD-9604) to preserve specific metabolic actions while removing receptor-mediated growth effects.
Fragment 176 to 191 was engineered to preferentially act on fat metabolism pathways, notably by enhancing lipolysis and reducing lipogenesis in adipose tissue. Lipolysis is breaking down fat, and lipogenesis is the making of fat.
In obese animal models, both full GH and the 176 to 191 fragment increased fat oxidation (burning of fat for energy) and reduced body-weight gain. However, the fragment did so without interacting with the GH receptor or significantly altering IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) which is a secondary biomarker used to monitor GH activity. It has separate and distinguished effects.
It also had less effect on glucose, or insulin sensitivity, showing a more specific metabolic effect than the parent hormone. Why would we want that? The obvious answer is fat reduction.
Bodybuilders would call it reproportioning. They're after the appearance of all muscle and no fat. That fragment (176-191) is known as AOD 9604 in the peptide world, and we'll cover it in more detail later.
Why folding matters
Here's another thing that we know about amino acid chains. They 'fit' into receptors, which signal cells to specific actions. Their shape is very specific.
They don't remain as straight long chains. Due to side arms from the peptide bond portion of the chains, they carry charges on the 'arm' which are specific for each amino acid. Those charges attract and repel, and they make the chain coil and compact, or 'fold.'
They wrap themselves into a bundle determined by those charges. Science long had the dilemma of predicting those shapes, which helped to predict action and receptor fit. Many, many scientists have been engaged in determining the folded nature of these peptides.
A side story: AlphaFold
Interesting side story related to that research. Sir Demis Hassabis started an AI company called Deep Mind. He sold it to Google in 2014 for a number with lots of zeroes after it.
Being a passionate inventor, he continued another company he founded, Isomorphic Labs. His drive was to use AI to help predict folding of amino acid chains. This was an effort named Alpha Fold and Alpha Fold 2.
In 2024, he and other co-workers were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their efforts with AI that created a model that predicted the folding of proteins. He is such a luminary in the AI world that he is an advisor to British government efforts to understand risks and benefits of AI.
After the success of that effort to predict folding, he made the conscious decision to not monetize that science advancement. He could have added greatly to his wealth. He chose to make it available and open source where scientists around the world could access and use that technology.
They could obtain models of the molecules they were researching. It was a major advancement, and he operated with the common good of mankind at heart. His actions were indeed worthy of a Nobel prize. That effort is thought to have benefitted millions of research investigators.
If you're interested in that story, there was a great documentary called The Thinking Game, which is entertaining to watch.
Where I'm going with this series
I could go on and on about peptides. If this is your burning interest let us know. We may move to create a chapter for those that want to keep going deeper on this peptide topic.
We'll start digging into the individual peptides, routes of administration, dosing, frequency, and 'stacking.' My job is to cover the topics necessary to paint the path to achieve optimal health.
There isn't a magic pill that will do it for you. Each topic will have much depth and require follow-up writings. What a daunting task!