
D
Tier
Cerebral-cortex bioregulator for neurological support.
Cognitive & Mood
Peptide
WADA Status:
Not listed
Human Trial Scoreboard
Completed human RCTs
No human studies at all
Largest Human Study
No human studies
Longest exposure
Duration not verified
Most Recent Trial
Year not verified
Description
Cortagen is a four amino acid peptide from the Khavinson bioregulator programme, assigned in that framework to nerve tissue and the brain. The theory holds that very short peptides can pass into cells, interact with DNA directly and influence which genes are switched on in specific organs. Whatever the merits of that theory, cortagen has no human evidence supporting it. Searches of international trial registries and the Russian registry return no registered controlled trial, and there are no published human studies at all. The available work is laboratory and animal research, mostly from a single research lineage and published in Russian-language journals that have not been independently assessed.
What Are The Claims
Claims made for this compound: Cognitive and neuro support
Evidence
The evidence problem here is structural rather than a matter of one weak study. The human claims for the Khavinson peptide bioregulators rest on a small body of largely non-randomized work published mostly within a single journal family, roughly half of it in Russian and unavailable in English translation. The flagship human mortality finding has never been independently replicated outside Russia. The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation's independent review notes that essentially every preclinical and clinical result traces back to Khavinson's own group with no independent confirmation. A 2025 in-vitro study from Brunel University London did independently support the telomerase mechanism in human cell lines, which is genuinely notable, but it is a cell-culture study that replicates no clinical claim and it carried a published figure correction.
Evidence Strength
Traditional/anecdotal (Russian literature, unblinded)
Caveats
Safety
Alternative Measures
Legal Status
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
EU
Not approved
AU
Not approved
WADA
Not listed
Not approved. Russian peptide-bioregulator lineage. Grey-market.
Citations
Khavinson VK, Morozov VG (2003). Neuro Endocrinology Letters. PMID: 14523363. | Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, Cognitive Vitality independent review. | Brunel University London (2025). Biogerontology. In-vitro telomere study. PMID: 40908429 (figure correction: PMID: 41240216).