Bioregulators

Thymogen is the synthetic dipeptide L-Glu-L-Trp (oglufanide, CAS 38101-59-6). A structural, mechanistic and honest-evidence look at this Khavinson-school immunoregulator.

Vilon is the synthetic Lys-Glu (KE) dipeptide, the smallest of the Khavinson bioregulators. Its chemistry, mouse and cell-culture literature, and honest limits.

For 20 years the epitalon telomerase claim rested on one lab. In 2025 an independent UK group reproduced it in human cells. What that does and doesn’t settle.

A Soviet-born research programme assigned a short peptide to nearly every organ in the body. Here is the map of the “cytogen” catalogue—and an honest reckoning with the state of the evidence in 2026.

Cortagen is a four-amino-acid “cytogen” from Vladimir Khavinson’s bioregulator programme, studied chiefly for one striking preclinical claim: that it helps injured peripheral nerves recover. We trace the science, and where its evidence runs thin.

Pinealon is the tripeptide EDR (Glu-Asp-Arg), a “cytogen”-class short peptide from the Khavinson school proposed to act as an epigenetic regulator of the brain. A clear-eyed look at the chemistry, the preclinical evidence, and why the data demand caution.

Vesugen is the tripeptide KED (Lys-Glu-Asp), the “vascular” member of the Khavinson cytogen family. It rests on a bold and still-unproven idea: that three amino acids can act as a tissue-selective regulator of the blood-vessel wall.

A profile of the Russian gerontologist who spent decades arguing that peptides just a few amino acids long could tune the genome and slow ageing — and why his evidence remains as fascinating as it is unsettled.

A guide to the Russian peptide-bioregulator school: very short peptides, each tied to a tissue, proposed to influence gene expression. What the catalogue is, where the idea came from, and how honest the evidence really is.