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Vesugen

Khavinson bioregulator

Also: KED · Lys-Glu-Asp · Cytogen AC-2 · peptide complex AC-2 · Vezugen · Vesugen for vessels · Везуген

CautionLongevityNeuroprotectionOral / Injection

Khavinson 'vascular' tripeptide Lys-Glu-Asp; small Russian studies, a handful of hopeful user reports.

Safety tier
Caution
strict bar
Positive
58%
of 4 reports
Per month
≈ €45–220≈ $50–240
estimate
Rank
#6
of 86 research peptides

At a glance

Onset
Not acute; the varicose-vein user judged it a month after the course, at the follow-up ultrasound.
Lasts
Taken as 1-month capsule courses or 10-30 day injection cycles, every 3-6 months; one user says symptoms come back about a year after the last course.
Access
Grey market
Best effects
Varicose veins gone on ultrasound after a month of capsules (one user, repeated over five years) · better erections with L-arginine (one user) · less joint and tendon pain in a stack with Cartalax and retatrutide (one user) · claimed: better penile blood flow in vasculogenic erectile dysfunction (one uncontrolled 41-patient report)
Downsides
Heart rate up to 90 and a flushed face after 1 mg subq (one user) · symptoms return about a year after stopping (the varicose-vein user) · capsules hold only 0.1 mg each, so users take many or switch to vials · expensive (Your Protocol 60 x 1 mg capsules about £190)
Typical use
Grey-market vials: 1-2 mg a day subq for 10-30 days, a dose with no published basis. Cytogen capsules: 1-2 capsules (0.1-0.2 mg) twice a day with meals for a month, repeated after 3-6 months (manufacturer); one user took 8 capsules a day.
Stacked with
Stacked with
Pinealon: The combination the developers' own human studies used, and the pairing they recommend for older people. · Cartalax, Cardiogen, Bronchogen: Run together as a 'Khavinson stack' by injectors; one user credits Vesugen, Cartalax and retatrutide together for his joint pain. · L-arginine, tadalafil: Taken for erections and vascularity alongside nitric-oxide boosters.

Safety

Watch
In its developers' 32-patient study, Vesugen with Pinealon raised a pro-oxidant marker and lowered blood CD34+ stem cells, which the authors called inhibition of haemopoiesis · Stimulates proliferation (Ki-67) of vascular cells and raised IGF-1 gene expression in stem cells, both in vitro · Grey-market injectable vials: purity, sterility and identity unverified
Tier by safety barStrict CautionBalanced CleanEvidence only Clean
  • Seen harm0 of 3
  • Mechanism1 of 3
  • Data gap2 of 3
  • Silent harm1 of 3
  • Product3 of 3
Never if
Pregnancy or breastfeeding (no human reproductive data) · Anyone using it in place of treatment for peripheral arterial disease, coronary disease or deep-vein problems
Why each score
Seen harm 0/3
No serious adverse event has been published or reported first-hand. One injector describes a pulse up to 90 and facial flushing after each 1 mg dose, which passed and is not serious; the developers' studies report no adverse events but had no systematic safety reporting. The zero reflects limited documented exposure, not reassurance. r/Biohackers: raised heart rate and flushing at 1 mg subq
Mechanism 1/3
No named pathway to serious harm. The signals are single-group and weak: Vesugen raised the proliferation marker Ki-67 in cultured vascular cells and IGF-1 gene expression in stem cells (both in vitro), and in the developers' 32-patient study a pro-oxidant marker rose and CD34+ blood stem cells fell. None has been shown in a living animal or replicated. Khavinson et al. 2014: Vesugen and Ki-67 in vascular endothelial cultures (Russian)Ashapkin et al. 2020: KED raises IGF1 expression in aging stem cellsMeshchaninov et al. 2015: Pinealon and Vesugen in older patients, n=32 (Russian)
Data gap 2/3
Not registered as a drug. Human data are small uncontrolled Russian studies from the developers' network (41 men with erectile dysfunction, 32 older patients with Pinealon, occupational groups given several Cytogens at once), with no placebo control and no systematic safety reporting. Kitachev et al. 2014: Vesugen in vasculogenic erectile dysfunction, n=41 (Russian)Meshchaninov et al. 2015: Pinealon and Vesugen in older patients, n=32 (Russian)
Silent harm 1/3
With no credible mechanism, rated on the harms actually reported or most plausible: flushing and a raised pulse after injection, injection-site or allergic reactions to grey-market vials, all noticed within hours and gone on stopping. A blood-count effect like the CD34+ fall would only show on a test.
Product 3/3
Reddit users increasingly inject grey-market 20 mg vials, with unverified purity and sterility. The Khavinson-line Cytogen capsules (0.1 mg each, sold as a supplement) and Western 1 mg capsules are the common oral alternative and would score 1-2. PepGrades: Vesugen 20 mg vial prices across vendorsPeptide Product: Vesugen Cytogen capsules

User reports

All 4 reports
Users report
Few reports. Only four people said how Vesugen went. The most striking: someone with recurring varicose veins after vein surgery took two packs of capsules (8 a day) for a month and says a follow-up ultrasound found the veins gone, with symptoms returning after a year off, which he has repeated twice a year for five years. Two others credit it in combinations, with L-arginine for erectile dysfunction and with Cartalax and retatrutide for joint and tendon pain. One injector got a racing pulse (to 90) and a flushed face after each 1 mg dose. Most Reddit threads are people asking where to buy it. Felt nothing: None of 4 first-hand reports; too few to count.
Glowing 1Positive 2Negative 1
  • r/Biohackers

    I took two packages in one month (8 capsules a day), symptoms relieved. Had another ultrasound a month after my dosing cycle was complete, and the latest ultrasound confirmed the varicose veins were gone.

    • 6 points
    Glowing8 capsules a day (two packs in one month)Oralone-month courses twice a year for five years
  • r/erectiledysfunction

    Have any of you tried the blood vessel peptide Vesugen. That and l-arginine help me alot.

    • 1 point
    PositiveLibido & hormones
  • r/Biohackers

    I just stared a cycle and at 1mg subq my heart rate goes up to 90 then tapers back down. Face flushes red. Have know idea why but think it might have something to do with the drop in blood pressure.

    • 1 point
    Negative1 mg subqInjection6 days when reported

Studies

Evidence
Small human studies — Small, uncontrolled Russian studies from the Khavinson network: 41 men with vasculogenic erectile dysfunction, 32 older patients with organic brain syndrome (with Pinealon), workers and truck drivers given several Cytogens at once, and a 110-person comparison of geroprotective methods. No placebo-controlled trial and no drug registration; the rest is cell work by the same group.
Caveat
Evidence for any vascular benefit comes from the developers' small uncontrolled studies; the varicose-vein ultrasound story is one person. Lys-Glu-Asp has no named harm pathway, so the score reflects thin data rather than a credible risk, though the same group saw falling CD34+ stem cells in its own human study and nobody has looked again. Capsule and vial doses differ fiftyfold: capsules 0.2-0.4 mg a day (manufacturer), vials 1-2 mg a day.
5 more studies and 5 sources

Sources

Similar peptides

Research notes, not medical advice. Updated . Also as Markdown.

Sequence

The peptide's chain of amino acids from its start (the N-terminus) to its end, one bead and one letter for each: A alanine, C cysteine, D aspartic acid, E glutamic acid, F phenylalanine, G glycine, H histidine, I isoleucine, K lysine, L leucine, M methionine, N asparagine, P proline, Q glutamine, R arginine, S serine, T threonine, V valine, W tryptophan, Y tyrosine. A modification such as an N-acetyl cap or a C-terminal amide changes how long it lasts in the body. Length tells related peptides apart, from a two-residue dipeptide like carnosine to a 43-residue protein like thymosin beta-4, and predicts neither effect nor safety.

Report grades

Every first-hand Reddit or X report is graded on its own, from glowing through positive, mixed, nothing and negative to bad reaction, and the bar shows how those grades split. Posts that look vendor-adjacent stay on the peptide's page but are left out of the counts.

GlowingPositiveMixedNothingNegativeBad reaction

% positive

The share of a peptide's graded Reddit and X reports that are glowing or positive, vendor-adjacent posts left out. A peptide with few reports is pulled toward the average of all reports, as if it had eight average ones besides its own, so two glowing posts cannot top the list. Peptides rank by this figure, those with no graded report yet after those with one, and Avoid ones after every other entry.

Researcher estimate

No first-hand report of this peptide has been graded yet, so the figure is the researchers' own rating out of 10 from what they read about it. It ranks after every peptide with graded reports until its own arrive.

Safety tier

Each peptide is tiered Clean, Caution or Avoid from its five risk axes under the chosen safety bar. An Avoid peptide carries a real risk of harm, a plausible route to serious harm rather than mere unpleasantness, so it stays listed with the reason but ranks behind every other entry, however good its reviews.

Safety bar

The safety bar sets how much risk it takes to rate a peptide Avoid. Strict: out on any serious mechanism with little human data, or any documented serious harm. Balanced: out on documented serious harm (unless it is obvious, reversible and from a regulated product), or a serious mechanism whose harm would be silent with no human data at all. Evidence only: out only on documented serious harm in humans that is lasting, delayed or from grey-market product.

Seen harm

Documented serious adverse events in humans, from 0 for none despite real exposure to 3 for deaths or several well-documented serious harms. Serious means a hospital or emergency visit or harm lasting weeks, so a headache or a bad night does not count.

Mechanism

A plausible biological route to serious harm at the doses people use, such as growth-factor signalling, hormone-axis suppression, heart or blood-pressure effects or immune activation. It runs from 0 when none is known to 3 when a dangerous pathway has been shown in living animals.

Data gap

How little human safety data exists for the molecule actually sold, from 0 for an approved drug with large trials and years of use to 3 for no human safety data at all. A modified analogue does not inherit its parent's trials.

Silent harm

Whether the feared harm would show quickly or stay hidden, from 0 when it is obvious and goes on stopping to 3 when it is silent and delayed, like tumour promotion or slow organ damage. User reports cannot reveal a harm that takes years to appear, so a high score here limits what good reviews can tell you.

Product

The risk of what people actually buy, from 0 for a regulated pharmacy or supplement product taken by mouth or on the skin to 3 for a grey-market injectable. In one dataset of 6,441 grey-market samples, 42–71% failed basic quality criteria and 15% carried endotoxin; taken by mouth or in the nose, a pack avoids the injection risks.

Evidence

The strongest kind of study behind the peptide's effects, from an approved drug through human controlled trials and small human studies to animal work or nothing of its own. Animal results often fail to carry over to people.

Access

How people get it: as an approved drug, a compounded prescription, an over-the-counter supplement or from the grey market, where nobody checks the vial. The channel decides both the legal position and the risk of a bad batch.

Price per month

Thirty days of the typical dose, from its low end to its high end, priced at the listing a careful buyer would choose: in stock, from a shop scoring 4 of 5 on trust (third-party tested where no score is set), failing that 3, a pure pack before a blend, a European shop first, then the cheapest per mg. The range is the dose's, not the shops'. A per-dose amount counts once a day unless the dose says otherwise. The shop table keeps each listing's price per mg, per gram for bulk supplements. Where no listing can be priced the researchers' own estimate stands in, and says so.

Dose users report

The middle half of the daily doses stated in at least five first-hand reports, vendor posts left out. Where its middle sits more than twice above or below the declared dose, the month is priced at it as well, since what people take is what they pay for.

Shop trust

Each shop's trust on a 1–5 scale, read from its testing and its reputation: 1 for serious red flags (fabricated COAs, scam reports, impersonation, a closed shop), 2 for no public testing, a new shop or active complaints such as seized parcels, 3 for its own COAs or a short track record, 4 for verified third-party testing or a strong reputation, and 5 for third-party batch reports that name the shop, with years of good independent reputation. A shop without a score counts third-party batch testing as 4, its own COAs as 3 and no public tests as 2.

Best value

Within a category or a goal, a peptide that no other beats on both counts: none is rated more positively for the same or a lower monthly price, and none costs less for the same or a higher rating. The chart joins these into the best-value line; the cheapest of them and the best-rated of them both make it, so the line spans the trade-off from cheap to best. Avoid entries never count, and a peptide needs both a % positive and a price to be compared.

Testing

Whether the shop publishes lab results: third-party tested means an independent lab checks each batch, own COA means the shop's own certificate of analysis, and no public tests means neither. A certificate shows purity, not safety.

Added peptide

Some packs sold under one peptide's name hold a second one, such as 5 mg GHK-Cu in a nasal kit, stated only in the description. Sprayed in the nose or injected it reaches the blood like an injection, so it carries the risk of that route and is tiered as the injectable form, whatever its tier on the skin. A pack whose page gives no contents list may hold more than its name.