Important limitations
- Individual claims and source links have not yet completed editorial verification.
- Evidence level, applicable study model, formulation, route and population remain unassigned.
Pancragen
Pancragen is the tetrapeptide Lys-Glu-Asp-Trp (KEDW), one of the short synthetic bioregulators developed at the St.
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 Pancragen
What published studies and recent community write-ups report about amounts, timing and course length. 1 clinical, 3 preclinical and 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical1 row | |||||
| Open study of Pankragen-forte in elderly people with prediabetes12 adults aged 60 and over with impaired glucose tolerance, selected from 69 screened older adults | 500 mcg | Twice daily, morning and evening | Not stated in the abstract (Pankragen-forte is a Russian oral product) | 4 weeksNone described | Advances in Gerontology (PubMed)2013 |
| Half of the 12 participants had a significant fall in plasma glucose during a standard oral glucose tolerance test after the course, which the authors link to improvements in serum lipids, endothelial function and platelet aggregation. The study was small, had no placebo group and was published in Russian by the developer's collaborators, so the result cannot be generalised. | |||||
| Preclinical3 rows | |||||
| Preclinical: aged rhesus monkeys with impaired glucose handlingOld female rhesus monkeys compared with young animals | 50 mcg per animal per day | Once daily | Intramuscular injection | 10 daysFollow-up 3 weeks after the course | Advances in Gerontology (PubMed)2014 |
| Old monkeys cleared an intravenous glucose load more slowly and had exaggerated insulin and C-peptide peaks; after the course the glucose disappearance rate rose and the insulin and C-peptide curves normalised, with part of the effect still present 3 weeks after stopping. The paper is a Russian-language report with an English abstract and gives no animal numbers in that abstract. | |||||
| Preclinical: Pancragen versus glimepiride in old rhesus monkeys9 clinically healthy female rhesus monkeys aged 20-25 years (5 given Pancragen, 4 given glimepiride) | 0.05 mg (50 mcg) per animal per day; comparator glimepiride 4 mg per animal per day by mouth | Once daily | Intramuscular injection (Pancragen); oral (glimepiride) | 10 daysMeasurements repeated after withdrawal | Advances in Gerontology (PubMed)2015 |
| Both treatments lowered basal glucose, but only Pancragen normalised insulin and C-peptide levels, while glimepiride produced a stronger, delayed glucose drop and raised C-peptide without changing insulin. With five treated animals and no placebo arm, the authors' conclusion that Pancragen is effective and safe for age-related glucose intolerance rests on a very small sample. | |||||
| Preclinical: human pancreatic cell culture and DNA bindingMIA PaCa-2 human pancreatic cells at the 14th passage, and purified double-stranded DNA in solution | 20 ng/mL added to the culture medium | Single addition | In vitro | Not applicableNot applicable | Community resource2015 |
| KEDW raised mRNA for PDX1, NGN3 and PAX6 by 1.6, 2.7 and 1.8 times and the matching proteins by 1.5 to 3.5 times, while lowering MNX1 and HOXA3 transcripts; absorption and circular dichroism spectra plus modelling were read as the peptide binding in the DNA major groove. The authors state they chose 20 ng/mL because it appeared most effective in earlier work, so no concentration-response data are given. | |||||
| Community-reported4 rows | |||||
| Research-vial reconstitution reference | No human dose given; 50 mcg (the primate dose) works out to 0.75 units from a 20 mg vial in 3 mL (6.67 mg/mL) | Once daily for 10 days in the primate reports it cites | Intramuscular in the primate studies; vendors sell a 20 mg lyophilised vial | 10 days (primate course)Not described | Community resource2026 |
| This 2026 vendor-affiliated page refuses to publish a dose ladder because no human dose or schedule has been published, and points out that the only in vivo daily amount, 50 mcg per monkey, falls below the resolution of an insulin syringe at the usual vial concentration. It states that the human paper's accessible record contains no dose and that there is no approved indication or registered trial. | |||||
| Subcutaneous course from a 20 mg vial | 500 mcg (conservative), 1 mg (standard) or 2 mg (higher) per injection; oral cytogen capsules at about 200 mcg per day | Once daily | Subcutaneous (20 mg vial in 2 mL gives 10 mg/mL, so 0.5-2 mg is 5-20 units); oral capsules | 10 daysCourses repeated 2-3 times a year | Community resource2026 |
| This 2026 dosing site labels its 0.5-2 mg subcutaneous ladder an educational reference that is far above any studied dose and presented only for measurement consistency. It also quotes 10 mcg intramuscular or 100 mcg oral twice-daily figures that it attributes to the founding human study, which the published English abstract does not contain, and it describes the Russian capsule at about 200 mcg a day. | |||||
| Khavinson-style pulse course, oral and subcutaneous | 10-20 mg once daily or 5-10 mg twice daily by mouth; 100-200 mcg subcutaneously (10 units from a 10 or 20 mg vial in 1 mL) | Once daily (or twice daily for the divided oral pattern) | Oral or sublingual capsule and tablet forms; subcutaneous injection | 10-20 days3-6 months between courses, 2-3 courses per year | Community resource2026 |
| This 2026 explainer frames all dosing as the Khavinson pulse-course pattern, short courses two or three times a year on the premise that gene-expression changes outlast the peptide in plasma. Its oral milligram figures are two orders of magnitude above the 200 mcg Russian capsule and the 500 mcg twice-daily human study dose, which illustrates how little agreement exists between sources. | |||||
| Capsule versus research-vial class pattern | 1-2 capsules per day (Cytomed oral product) or 1-2 mg subcutaneously (research vial) | Once daily | Oral capsules swallowed about 30 minutes before a meal; subcutaneous injection from a reconstituted vial | 10-30 days1-2 courses per year | Community resource2026 |
| A 2026 calculator site separates the Russian capsule product from the gray-market injectable and warns against converting capsule counts into vial milligrams, calling the 1-2 mg, roughly 10-day subcutaneous course a class pattern rather than a studied dose. Its compound card lists a formula and molecular weight that do not match the PubChem record for KEDW, so its chemistry figures should not be relied on. | |||||
How a course is commonly described
- Days 1-10Community-reported
Every community source describes a short course rather than continuous use: 0.5-2 mg subcutaneously once a day, or one or two oral capsules a day, for about 10 days. The primate studies behind the pattern used 50 mcg intramuscularly for 10 days, a dose roughly 10 to 40 times smaller than the injectable community figures.
- Days 10-30Community-reported
Oral courses are sometimes extended to 20-30 days, and the one human study with a stated dose ran 500 mcg twice daily for 4 weeks before repeating the glucose tolerance test. Community guides describe no titration and no change in dose during the course.
- Between coursesCommunity-reported
Guides describe 3-6 months off and 2-3 courses a year, following the general Khavinson pulse-course convention. The only published support for a lasting effect is the monkey report in which part of the glucose-handling improvement was still present 3 weeks after a 10-day course.
- Evidence checkCommunity-reported
Published Pancragen research consists of cell culture, a streptozotocin rat model, two reports in 9 or fewer aged monkeys and two small open human studies from the developer's network. There is no formal toxicology, no pharmacokinetic study, no placebo-controlled trial and no registered trial on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- The human data are two small open studies from the Khavinson network: 33 elderly patients with type 2 diabetes whose dose is not given in the English abstract, and 12 people with prediabetes given 500 mcg twice daily for 4 weeks. Neither had a placebo arm, and no regulator has approved Pancragen.
- Amounts differ by orders of magnitude between products and sources: about 200 mcg per Russian capsule, 50 mcg per day intramuscularly in monkeys, 500 mcg twice daily in the human study and 0.5-2 mg subcutaneous injections in community protocols, which community sites themselves describe as far above any studied dose.
- No pharmacokinetic study exists; an unmodified tetrapeptide is expected to be broken down in plasma within minutes, and the developers describe the compound as Lys-Glu-Asp-Trp-NH2 while vendor listings usually give the free-acid formula. The 10-day course and twice-yearly repetition come from the school's general practice, not from dose-finding work.
Sources for this section (11)
- Prospects of using pancragen for correction of metabolic disorders in elderly people
- The tetrapeptide pankragen forte efficiency in elderly people with prediabetic state (Russian)
- Impact of tetrapeptide pancragen on endocrine function of the pancreas in old monkeys (Russian)
- Correction of impaired glucose tolerance using tetrapeptide (Pancragen) in old female rhesus monkeys (Russian)
- Effect of pancragen on blood glucose level, capillary permeability and adhesion in rats with experimental diabetes mellitus
Plus 6 community resources (dosing guides, forum threads and vendor write-ups), reported above but not linked.
Overview
Pancragen is the tetrapeptide Lys-Glu-Asp-Trp (KEDW), one of the short synthetic bioregulators developed at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology under Vladimir Khavinson and assigned to the pancreas. Its developers propose that it enters the nucleus, binds DNA and switches on differentiation genes such as PDX1 and NGN3 in pancreatic cells, and they report lower blood glucose in streptozotocin-diabetic rats, normalised insulin and C-peptide responses in aged rhesus monkeys after a 10-day intramuscular course, and improved glucose handling in two small groups of elderly people (33 with type 2 diabetes in 2011 and 12 with prediabetes in 2013). All of this work comes from the Khavinson network and its collaborators in Kyiv and Sochi, mostly in Russian-language journals, with no independent replication, no registered trial on ClinicalTrials.gov and no approval from the FDA or EMA. It is sold in Russia as an oral capsule supplement and in the West as a 10 or 20 mg research vial.
What researchers are exploring
These themes organize the educational information currently available. Individual claims remain under source review and are not treatment claims.
- 1
Pancragen and Aging
Effects on cellular function and metabolic health
What is known and what still needs verification
Available context is organized without assigning unsupported study models or evidence grades.
- Not graded
Pancragen and Aging
Effects on cellular function and metabolic health
Amounts recorded for Pancragen
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
Lys-Glu-Asp-Trp
Also listed as
H-Lys-Glu-Asp-Trp-OH (PubChem record title), KEDW, Lys-Glu-Asp-Trp, Pankragen, Pancragen forte (Russian oral product name), SCHEMBL2946041, H-Lys-Glu-Asp-Trp-NH2 (amidated form, PubChem CID 68451868)
InChIKey
PIGJHNNSOMRLST-LEAZDLGRSA-N
IUPAC name
(4S)-5-[[(2S)-3-carboxy-1-[[(1S)-1-carboxy-2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethyl]amino]-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-4-[[(2S)-2,6-diaminohexanoyl]amino]-5-oxopentanoic acid
Limitations and unknowns
Sources
1 link carried over from the earlier page, awaiting verification.