Important limitations
- Individual claims and source links have not yet completed editorial verification.
- Evidence level, applicable study model, formulation, route and population remain unassigned.
Cardiogen
Cardiogen is a research peptide aimed at enhancing cardiovascular studies.
Dosing & scaling, explained
The moderated mass amounts below are retained for comparison. Near-duplicates, mix-dependent volumes and device markings are excluded. This is educational source context, not a protocol or recommendation.
Mass amounts available for comparison
- Lower range1 mgDose
Recorded example with no verified study backing; shown for amount literacy only.
- Mid range5 mgDose
Recorded example with no verified study backing; shown for amount literacy only.
Only mcg or mg amounts are retained. The calculator derives mL, syringe units or pen clicks from the current vial strength, water volume and device.
No independently verified schedule
Evidence context
No clinical amount or schedule is inferred from this material. Source verification is pending, and every displayed amount remains educational context rather than guidance.
Storage, handling and interpretation
Product identity
Verify the exact compound, formulation and amount against the product label or certificate before calculation.
Storage & handling
Follow the product label, certificate and validated laboratory SOP; no universal storage assumption is applied here.
Prepared solutions
Label concentration and preparation date, use sterile technique where applicable, and follow a validated stability protocol.
Reported protocols for Cardiogen
What published studies and recent community write-ups report about amounts, timing and course length. 5 preclinical and 5 community-reported rows, each linked to its source. These are descriptions of what others report, not instructions, and nothing here is medical advice.
| Context | Dose | Frequency | Route | Course | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preclinical5 rows | |||||
| Rat organ explant cultures, the foundational tissue-specificity experimentOrganotypic cultures of heart, lung, prostate and pancreas explants from 3-week-old and 18-month-old rats | 0.05 ng/mL | Added to the culture medium | In vitro | Not applicableNot applicable | Advances in Gerontology (PubMed)2006 |
| Cardiogen, bronchogen, prostamax and pancragen each stimulated growth in the explants of its own assigned organ against controls, in both young and aged animals. This is the single experiment the whole tissue-specificity claim rests on, and no independent laboratory has repeated it. | |||||
| Rat heart explant cultures compared against amino acidsMyocardial explant cultures from 3-month-old and 24-month-old rats | 10 to the minus 12 molar | Added to the culture medium | In vitro | 3-day organotypic cultureNot applicable | Advances in Gerontology (PubMed)2009 |
| Of the 20 individual amino acids tested alongside it, seven stimulated proliferation in young heart tissue and only two in old tissue, while cardiogen stimulated both strongly. Immunohistochemistry showed lower p53 expression after cardiogen, which the authors read as apoptosis being held back. An explant culture measures cell outgrowth from a piece of tissue in a dish, not cardiac function. | |||||
| Transplanted sarcoma in old rats, the only in vivo studySenescent rats carrying transplanted M-1 sarcoma | Dose not given in the English abstract; the effect is described as dose-dependent across 3 or more treated groups | Repeated injections | Injection | Not stated in the English abstractNot applicable | Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine (PubMed)2009 |
| Tumor cell apoptosis was higher in every treated group than in controls and tumor growth was held back through bleeding and necrosis rather than any direct effect on the tumor cells, which led the authors to conclude the peptide acted on the tumor's blood vessels. The same molecule suppressed apoptosis in normal heart tissue and promoted it in tumor tissue, a contradiction the literature does not resolve, and no study has looked at what the vascular effect does to healthy vessels. | |||||
| Transporter modelling for cellular uptakeComputational docking of 26 bioactive ultrashort peptides plus all 8,400 di- and tripeptides as a comparison set | Not applicable; AEDR scored among the best computed ligands of LAT1, LAT2 and PEPT1 | Not applicable | In silico | Not applicableNot applicable | Biomolecules (PubMed)2023 |
| This 2023 paper from the developers is the only retrievable basis for how a water-soluble tetrapeptide might get inside a cell to reach the DNA targets their hypothesis requires, and it is a docking exercise with no measurement behind it. No study has measured oral absorption of cardiogen in any species. | |||||
| Review placing the peptide in a cardiovascular ageing frameworkReview of cardiovascular cell senescence signalling | No dose; the review lists AEDR among candidate regulators of 10 or more senescence-associated molecules | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicableNot applicable | Cells (PubMed)2022 |
| This 2022 open-access review from the developing group catalogues the senescence-associated secretory phenotype of ageing heart and vessel cells and names the AEDR tetrapeptide alongside licensed drugs as a proposed regulator of those molecules. It frames the cardiogen evidence rather than testing it, and cites only laboratory work for the peptide. | |||||
| Community-reported5 rows | |||||
| Khavinson oral capsule framework | 200-400 mcg (1 to 2 capsules) | Once daily | Oral capsules, sold as a food supplement in Russia | 10-30 daysCourses repeated 2 to 3 times a year | Community resource2026 |
| This 2026 page reproduces the dosing framework shared across the Khavinson supplement line and states that it comes from that framework rather than from any dose-finding study of AEDR, and that no pharmacokinetic data confirm oral absorption of the tetrapeptide. It also lists the animal figures as 0.1 to 1 mcg per animal over 5 to 10 days. | |||||
| Vendor capsule and injection figures | 100-200 mcg per day by mouth; 1-2 mg by injection | Once daily by mouth with meals; once daily or every other day by injection | Oral capsule, subcutaneous injection, or a nasal spray the vendor also sells | 10-30 days2-3 courses a year | Community resource2026 |
| A supplier page gives both an oral microgram figure and an injectable milligram figure that is roughly ten thousand times the oral one, with no explanation of the gap. Neither number appears in any published study, and the nasal route has no published research at all. | |||||
| Editorial review of the published doses | Only laboratory concentrations exist: 0.05 ng/mL and 10 to the minus 12 molar | Added to culture medium in every study except the sarcoma experiment | In vitro, or injection in the one in vivo study | Days in cultureNot applicable | Community resource2026 |
| A September 2026 review reports searching PubMed for cardiogen, kardiogen, AEDR and the full sequence and finding no clinical study, case report or registered trial. It highlights the gap between picomolar culture concentrations and the milligram quantities in a research vial, and says the research offers no basis for choosing any amount. | |||||
| Database summary of the preclinical record | No human dosing established; 0.05 ng/mL and 10 to the minus 12 molar in culture | Not applicable | Culture medium or injection in rats | 3-day cultures; duration not stated for the rat studyNot applicable | Community resource2026 |
| This database states that community subcutaneous milligram protocols dosed every few days have no basis in the peer-reviewed literature and that no pharmacokinetic study exists in any species, so there is no way to convert a culture concentration into a whole-body dose. It also flags chronic p53 suppression in healthy tissue as an untested theoretical concern. | |||||
| Critical assessment of the cardiac claim | No validated dose; the clearest study used a concentration on the order of 10 to the minus 12 molar | Not applicable | Ex vivo culture | Not applicableNot applicable | Community resource2026 |
| This 2026 assessment separates the chemistry, which it calls verifiable, from the cardiac evidence, which it describes as a handful of single-laboratory tissue cultures with no human trial, no independent replication and no beating-heart disease model. It notes that the only in vivo cardiogen study had a cancer endpoint and that the gene-expression narrative is built by analogy from related peptides. | |||||
How a course is commonly described
- Days 1-10Community-reported
Community protocols start and stay at a flat dose with no titration, most often 100 to 400 mcg a day by mouth. Ten days is the shortest course in circulation, and the pattern comes from the Khavinson supplement line rather than from any study of this peptide.
- Days 10-30Community-reported
The full course described online runs 10 to 30 days at the same dose, with some vendor pages adding an injectable figure in the 1 to 2 mg range for the same window. No human measurement exists at any point in it.
- Break, then 2-3 courses a yearCommunity-reported
Courses are repeated two or three times a year with long gaps, a convention shared across the whole Khavinson line. One editorial review calls the 10 to 30 day course a marketing convention rather than a research finding.
- Preclinical comparisonPreclinical
The only timescale in the research is three days of organotypic culture, in which heart explants from both young and old rats grew more and showed less p53. There is no in vivo cardiac timeline at all, because no study has dosed a living animal and measured the heart.
- No human study of cardiogen has been published and no trial is registered. The microgram capsule doses and 10 to 30 day courses in circulation come from the Russian supplement framework, and the only published quantities are culture concentrations of 0.05 ng/mL and 10 to the minus 12 molar.
- For a peptide sold for the heart, nothing in the record measures the heart in a living animal. No study of cardiogen in a model of heart attack, heart failure, high blood pressure or arrhythmia exists, and heart rate, blood pressure, rhythm and cardiac function have never been measured after it in any species.
- The two directions of its reported effect on cell death are unexplained: it lowered p53 and apoptosis in normal heart tissue but raised tumor cell apoptosis and caused bleeding and necrosis in a transplanted sarcoma. Long-term suppression of p53 in healthy tissue is an open question that no study has addressed.
- The tissue specificity claimed for the series is relative rather than absolute: the heart peptide also raised differentiation markers in ageing human prostate fibroblast cultures. Almost every paper comes from one St Petersburg group and no independent laboratory has replicated the findings. It is not named on the WADA prohibited list.
Sources for this section (12)
- The tissue-specific effect of synthetic peptides-biologic regulators in organotypic tissues culture in young and old rats
- The effect of the amino acids and cardiogen on the development of myocard tissue culture from young and old rats
- Tumor-modifying effect of cardiogen peptide on M-1 sarcoma in senescent rats
- Tetrapeptide H-Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg-OH stimulates expression of cytoskeletal and nuclear matrix proteins
- Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype of Cardiovascular System Cells and Inflammaging: Perspectives of Peptide Regulation
- Peptide Regulation of Gene Expression: A Systematic Review
- Feasibility of Transport of 26 Biologically Active Ultrashort Peptides via LAT and PEPT Family Transporters
Plus 5 community resources (dosing guides, forum threads and vendor write-ups), reported above but not linked.
Overview
Cardiogen is a four-residue synthetic peptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg, from the series of short bioregulator peptides designed by Vladimir Khavinson's group at the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, which built each peptide from the amino acid composition of an organ extract and assigned it to that organ. It shares its first three residues with epitalon, cortagen and bronchogen, differing only in the terminal arginine, which gives it a positive charge the others lack. Its published research amounts to a handful of papers: organotypic cultures of rat heart explants, a mouse fibroblast study on cytoskeletal protein synthesis, one experiment on a transplanted sarcoma in old rats, and binding work with wheat histones. No study in any species has measured heart function, blood pressure or rhythm after cardiogen, there are no human studies of any kind and no pharmacokinetic data for any route, and it is not an approved medicine anywhere.
What researchers are exploring
These themes organize the educational information currently available. Individual claims remain under source review and are not treatment claims.
- 1
Cardiogen and the Heart
Reducing scar formation and cardiac apoptosis
- 2
Cardiogen and Cancer
Distinct responses in tumor microenvironments
- 3
Cardiogen and the Prostate
Normalizing fibroblast signaling
- 4
Summary
Therapeutic takeaways
What is known and what still needs verification
Available context is organized without assigning unsupported study models or evidence grades.
- Not graded
Cardiogen and the Heart
Reducing scar formation and cardiac apoptosis
- Not graded
Cardiogen and Cancer
Distinct responses in tumor microenvironments
Amounts recorded for Cardiogen
These amount records are independent from vial strength, reconstitution volume and measuring device. A recorded source is not the same as study backing, and these values are not recommendations.
- 1Dose · lower endpointSign in for schedule, duration and source context.1 mg
- 2Dose · upper endpointSign in for schedule, duration and source context.5 mg
Chemistry identifiers
Sequence, synonyms and registry identifiers as recorded in PubChem, the National Library of Medicine's open chemistry database. Formula, mass and CAS number are summarized at the top of the page.
Sequence
Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg
Also listed as
Cardiogen, AEDR peptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg, H-Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg-OH (PubChem record title), SCHEMBL3194515
InChIKey
QXQARLZWUIQZPX-NAKRPEOUSA-N
IUPAC name
(4S)-4-[[(2S)-2-aminopropanoyl]amino]-5-[[(2S)-3-carboxy-1-[[(1S)-1-carboxy-4-(diaminomethylideneamino)butyl]amino]-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-5-oxopentanoic acid
Limitations and unknowns
Sources
1 link carried over from the earlier page, awaiting verification.