Longevity and cellular
NAD+ precursors, mitochondrial peptides and the telomere compounds, tiered by how much human data exists.
Covered here: Epitalon · MOTS-c · NAD+
Whether peptides are good for anti-aging depends entirely on which compound and which claim, and in this group one tier has human biomarker data while the rest has very little. NAD+ precursors are the exception: nicotinamide riboside and nicotinamide mononucleotide have been through human studies that measured blood NAD+ levels, and raising that marker is the published finding. Whether a higher marker changes how a person ages is a separate question, and it is not settled.
Epitalon is a four-amino-acid peptide, alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, associated with Russian research from the 1980s onward on the pineal gland and on telomeres. Its published record is thin by the standards applied elsewhere on this site: small studies, limited independent replication, and little in the way of modern randomised data. MOTS-c is scientifically more interesting and clinically no better evidenced. It is a peptide encoded in mitochondrial DNA rather than in the nucleus, which is a genuinely novel piece of biology, and it has been studied almost entirely in cells and mice.
Glutathione is where the evidence question gets awkward in a different way. The molecule is uncontroversial, a tripeptide and the principal antioxidant inside human cells, but the injectable product and the claims attached to it are not the molecule. Our longevity review tiers this whole class by evidence, and the ordering matters more than any individual compound in it.
Common questions
Which peptides have the best anti-aging evidence?
The strongest human data in this group is not for a peptide at all: it is for NAD+ precursors, where oral nicotinamide riboside and nicotinamide mononucleotide have been studied in people with blood NAD+ as the measured endpoint. Among the peptides, MOTS-c has the most interesting biology and an almost entirely preclinical record, and the telomere compounds have the thinnest record of all. No compound in this group is FDA-approved for an aging indication, because no such indication exists.
What is epitalon, and how is it supposed to work?
Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide, alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, developed from Russian research on pineal peptide extracts. The proposed mechanism in that literature involves effects on telomerase activity and on pineal regulation. Proposed is the operative word: the supporting studies are small, mostly decades old, and have seen limited independent replication in the journals the rest of the world reads.
What are NAD injections?
NAD+ is nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a coenzyme every cell uses in energy metabolism, and it is not a peptide. NAD injections and infusions deliver it, or a precursor, directly rather than orally. Most of the human research in this area used oral precursors and measured blood NAD+ levels as the endpoint, so the published findings and the injected products are not the same subject.
Are NAD injections safe?
Injected and infused NAD+ has no FDA approval and no large randomised safety dataset behind it. The oral precursors have been studied in humans and reported as tolerated at the doses tested. Those are different products delivered by different routes, and a tolerability finding for one is not a safety finding for the other.
What is MOTS-c?
MOTS-c is a short peptide encoded in mitochondrial DNA rather than in the cell nucleus, which makes it part of a small and genuinely novel class. Research describes it in the context of metabolic regulation and cellular stress response, and that research is almost entirely in cell culture and mouse models. There is no completed randomised human efficacy trial of MOTS-c.
What is a glutathione injection?
Glutathione is a tripeptide, glutamate-cysteine-glycine, and the main antioxidant inside human cells. Injectable glutathione is sold with skin-lightening and general wellness claims, neither of which rests on an FDA-approved product. The molecule being ordinary and well characterised is not the same thing as the injection having an evidence base.
Read the evidence
3 pieces on this subject, every finding attributed and every gap stated.
Related topics
For research use only · Not for human or veterinary use · No compound discussed here is FDA-approved for any indication