What are Peptides?

What are Peptides?

To understand a peptide, we need to look at amino acids for a moment. There are 20 naturally occurring amino
acids in the universal genetic code, and these are the building blocks of all life. A peptide is simply the
combination or binding of amino acids.

It is intimidating at first, but let’s break down a peptide:

GHK-Cu is a popular peptide which can also be called Glycyl-L-Histidyl-L-Lysine, or a bond of glycine + histidine + lysine.e

Peptides are simply small chains of amino acids (2-50) after which it becomes classified as a protein. 

What does a peptide do?

Since peptides are a combination of amino acids, let’s start there again.   Amino acids play a role in almost every system throughout your body; creation and growth of muscles, connective tissue and skin, healing and repair,  building of proteins, hormone synthesis, immune response, metabolism, energy production, wound healing, and brain function.

Peptides exist naturally in the body, and since they are simply bonded amino acids, they perform similar and more complex functions. Think of peptides as keys or switches that trigger specific processes in the body in order to enhance function, strengthen immunity, or to heal and treat disease, as a few examples.

Insulin, for instance, is the most recognized name in peptide science. This peptide tells cells in your body to absorb sugar and use it for energy, and when there is too much glucose in your blood stream, insulin signals the body to store the excess glucose in your liver. 

What makes peptides so unique and important?

1)Since peptide chains are short, they have the ability to sneak through walls of intestines, human skin, membranes surrounding cells, and other tissue that could otherwise not be accessed.

2) The short length of peptides allows them to easily be chemically synthesized and mass produced.

3) Most drugs must be eliminated from the body, which can cause accumulation toxicity and other side effects, while peptides simply break down into amino acids and essentially become food.

4) Peptides interact so naturally in the body that they are able to precisely and selectively interact with a receptor to cause a biological process without side effects.

What is the future of peptides in medicine?

Peptides have changed the landscape of medicine with over 800 peptide therapies in the clinical pipeline, and doctors and medical professionals giving patients peptides as alternative therapies for chronic disease. Peptides have shown tremendous promise in the field of Oncology, backed by hundreds of cancer related studies.

Peptide therapies are used to treat diabetes and metabolic syndrome, alzheimer’s and cognition, cardiovascular disease, auto-immune disease, cancer treatment, reversal of damaged DNA due to aging, increase of muscle mass and bone density in the aging, treatment for hearing loss, healing of tendons and cartilage, release fat from obese fat cells, and much more.