# Cerluten

Khavinson oral calf-brain peptide extract (Cytomax A-5); one in-house report, no first-hand users found.

- Page: https://peprank.xyz/peptides/cerluten
- Category: Focus & memory (Supplement)
- Also known as: Cytomax A-5; peptide complex A-5; Церлутен; calf brain peptide extract capsules
- Routes: Oral
- Safety tier: Strict: Caution · Balanced: Clean · Evidence only: Clean
- Risk axes (0 none to 3 severe): Seen harm 0, Mechanism 1, Data gap 2, Silent harm 1, Product 1
- Researcher estimate: 3/10 (no graded reports yet)
- Rank: #20 of 23 supplements
- Evidence: Small human studies — One open, non-randomised 48-patient report from the developer's own clinic (vs 37 on standard care), never published in a journal; nothing on PubMed names Cerluten. Related evidence is for different products: injected Cortexin and the synthetic Pinealon and Cortagen.
- Access: Supplement
- Onset: Nothing acute; the developer's report assessed patients at the end of a 10-20 day course.
- Lasts: Taken as 10-30 day courses once or twice a year; any claimed benefit is said to persist for months.
- Cost per month: ≈ €49–110 (researchers' estimate)
- Updated: 2026-10-30

## What users report

No first-hand Reddit reports could be found. Cerluten turns up only in shopping lists and questions (a visual-snow user listing it beside Cortagen, Cortexin and Pinealon, a glaucoma thread asking whether brain bioregulators help), never with an outcome. The score is a placeholder for 'unknown', informed only by how often users of its sibling capsules (Pinealon, other Cytomaxes) report feeling nothing. Felt nothing: No first-hand reports found, so nothing can be counted.

**Effects:** claimed: better attention, memory and stamina after a 10-20 day course (developer report only); claimed: fewer headaches and less fatigue in people after brain injury or stroke (developer report only)

**Downsides:** no measurable effect expected acutely; judged over weeks; cost of repeated 20-60 capsule courses; nobody has shown that intact peptides survive digestion

**Risks:** Made from the central nervous tissue of calves (up to 12 months old): bovine brain is the tissue that carried BSE to people, so a prion route is theoretical rather than impossible, though calves under 12 months fall outside the EU specified-risk-material rule; Allergy to bovine proteins

**Caveat:** Consistent with Pinealon (kept) and unlike Epitalon (excluded): Cerluten makes no telomerase or cell-division claim, so the theoretical harm routes are prion contamination of bovine nervous tissue and allergy, not tumour promotion. The prion route is remote with calves under 12 months, but it is the reason this is not rated clean. Efficacy rests on one unpublished open report from the developer, and nobody has measured intact peptides in blood after an oral capsule.

**Typical use:** 1-2 capsules (10-20 mg peptide complex) two or three times a day before meals for 10-20 days, or 2 capsules a day for 30 days; repeated after 3-6 months (manufacturer).

**Getting it:** Sold as a Russian food supplement (БАД, labelled 'not a medicine') in 20- or 60-capsule packs of 10 mg peptide complex per capsule, through bioregulator shops in the EU, UK and US. It is not the injectable Cortexin, nor the synthetic Pinealon or Cortagen.

**Stacked with:** Pinealon (Sellers pair the extract with the synthetic brain tripeptide, a 'Cytogen then Cytomax' sequence the Khavinson catalogue itself recommends.); Cortexin or Cortagen (Listed together by visual-snow and post-concussion users shopping for brain bioregulators; no outcome was reported.)

## Risk profile

- **Seen harm 0/3:** No serious adverse event has been reported, but the zero reflects how little documented exposure there is (one 48-patient developer report that noted no adverse effects, and no first-hand user reports found), not reassurance.
- **Mechanism 1/3:** The peptides themselves have no named harm pathway. The one route to serious harm is theoretical: prion contamination of bovine central nervous tissue, the tissue that transmitted BSE to people. It is remote because the source is calves under 12 months, below the EU's specified-risk-material age for bovine brain, so it stays a speculative 1.
- **Data gap 2/3:** A Russian food supplement, not an approved drug anywhere. The only human data are one open, non-randomised report of 48 patients against 37 controls from the developer's clinic, never published in a journal; the Cortexin trials concern an injected extract and do not bridge to oral capsules.
- **Silent harm 1/3:** Rated on the most plausible harm, an allergic or digestive reaction to a bovine protein extract, which would be noticed and stop with the capsules. The theoretical prion route behind the mechanism score would be silent for years, but at mechanism 1 it does not set this axis.
- **Product 1/3:** Bought as finished, sealed capsules from bioregulator supplement shops, not as research vials; but it is an animal-tissue extract with no published batch analysis and some relabelled copies, so 'OTC but variable quality'.
- **Never if:** Pregnancy or breastfeeding (no human reproductive data); Allergy to bovine (beef) proteins; Anyone avoiding bovine nervous tissue on BSE/prion grounds

## Studies

- [St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology: report on the clinical study of Cerluten (institute report, English translation)](https://www.antiaging-systems.com/articles/report-on-the-results-of-clinical-study-of-peptide-bioregulator-cerluten/) (controlled, n=85, 2004): 48 patients with post-traumatic, post-stroke or vascular brain disorders took 1-2 capsules 2-3 times a day for 10-20 days on top of standard care; 64.6% had a 'good' result against 27% of 37 controls, with better attention-test scores and no adverse effects reported. Open, unblinded, run by the developer; the Russian copy dates it 2005-06.
- [Cochrane 2023: Cerebrolysin for acute ischaemic stroke (pools the 272-patient Cortexin trial)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37818733/) (meta-analysis, 2023): The closest real trial evidence is for injected brain extracts, not oral Cerluten: no mortality benefit, and a possible excess of non-fatal serious adverse events for the class.
- [Khavinson, Kuznik & Ryzhak 2013: Peptide bioregulators, the new class of geroprotectors. Message 2: clinical studies results](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24003726/) (review, 2013): The developers' own summary of clinical work on their injectable extracts (Cortexin, Thymalin, Retinalamin and others); the oral Cytomax capsules such as Cerluten are not among the products reviewed.
- [Khavinson et al. 2020: EDR peptide and gene expression in Alzheimer's disease (review)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33396470/) (review, 2020): Describes the synthetic brain tripeptide EDR (Pinealon); cited by Cerluten sellers as mechanism, but it is a different, defined molecule and the work is all from the same group.

## Sources

- [Cerluten institute clinical report (English translation)](https://www.antiaging-systems.com/articles/report-on-the-results-of-clinical-study-of-peptide-bioregulator-cerluten/)
- [Церлутен: клинические испытания (Russian copy of the report, dated Oct 2005-Feb 2006)](https://peptidspb.ru/blog/klinika/cerluten-klinicheskie-ispytaniya.html)
- [Peptide Product: Cerluten (Cytomax, peptide complex A-5, brain peptides)](https://peptideproduct.com/catalog/peptide_products/cerluten/)
- [Regulation (EC) 999/2001 Annex V: specified risk material (bovine skull including brain and eyes, over 12 months)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2001/999/annex/V)