Important limitations
- Individual claims and source links have not yet completed editorial verification.
- Evidence level, applicable study model, formulation, route and population remain unassigned.
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 range200 mcgDose
Recorded example with no verified study backing; shown for amount literacy only.
- Mid range500 mcgDose
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 PNC-27
What published studies and recent community write-ups report about amounts, timing and course length. 3 preclinical and 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preclinical3 rows | |||||
| Preclinical: acute myeloid leukaemia mouse modelsMice engrafted with human or mouse AML blasts, including leukaemia stem cell populations, plus healthy wild-type mice | 40 mg/kg (a 100 mg/kg arm was also run) | Once daily | Intraperitoneal injection | 2 or 3 weeks, followed by survival or secondary transplant analysisNone | Leukemia (PubMed Central)2020 |
| Three weeks of 40 mg/kg extended median survival to 54 days against 41 days for the inactive control peptide PNC-29 and 42 days for vehicle, and reduced leukaemia stem cell burden in secondary transplants, while normal blood stem cells were spared even at 100 mg/kg. The authors describe the mechanism as PNC-27 strengthening the interaction of membrane HDM2 with E-cadherin, and the peptides were supplied by a company with a commercial interest. | |||||
| Preclinical: dose-response in cervical cancer cellsHuman squamous cervical cancer line HTB-35 (SiHa) and the untransformed cervical line PCS-480 | IC50 of 12.4 micromolar in the cancer line | Single incubation | In vitro, added to the culture medium | Not applicableNot applicable | Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science (PubMed)2025 |
| The cancer line was killed across the dose-response curve while the normal cervical line was not, and only the cancer cells carried high levels of HDM-2 in their membranes. This is a single cell-line comparison from the originating group, and a micromolar culture concentration gives no guidance about a dose in an animal or a person. | |||||
| Preclinical: mechanism in breast and leukaemia cell linesMCF-7 breast cancer cells, untransformed MCF-10-2A breast epithelial cells and several leukaemia lines | Not quantified in the abstract; pores appeared within 30 minutes and leukaemia cells released lactate dehydrogenase within 4 hours | Single exposure | In vitro | Not applicableNot applicable | Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology (PubMed)2010 |
| Double-labelled peptide showed that the intact 32-residue molecule, not a fragment, collects in cancer cell membranes and that untransformed cells survive while the peptide is degraded in their membranes. Later work with immuno-electron microscopy found PNC-27 and HDM-2 in roughly one-to-one ring structures lining pores in treated cancer cells and no pores in treated normal fibroblasts. | |||||
| Community-reported3 rows | |||||
| Clinic protocol sheet | 200-300 mcg (0.08-0.12 mL, or 8-12 units) from a 5 mg vial reconstituted with 2 mL | Three times per week | Subcutaneous | Not statedNot stated | Community resource2022 |
| A practitioner-facing sheet from a peptide supplier sets out this regimen next to a summary of the membrane HDM-2 mechanism and a list of cancer cell lines from the published literature. It gives no course length, no monitoring and no source for the dose, and the route and amount do not correspond to any published experiment. | |||||
| Titration course from a 30 mg vial | 100 mcg in weeks 1-2, 200 mcg in weeks 3-4, 300 mcg in weeks 5-8, 400 mcg in weeks 9-12, 500 mcg in weeks 13-16 (1 unit per 100 mcg at 10 mg/mL) | Once daily | Subcutaneous, rotating sites | 16 weeksNone described | Community resource2025 |
| This November 2025 page calls its own ladder an educational extrapolation rather than an approved schedule, states that no authoritative human dose exists and that anything above a few hundred micrograms a day is speculative, and points out that the preclinical work used intraperitoneal dosing rather than the subcutaneous route it describes. It repeats the FDA warning and the contamination finding. | |||||
| Shorter version of the same titration | 100 mcg to start, rising by about 100 mcg every 2 weeks to 300-500 mcg daily | Once daily | Subcutaneous from a 30 mg vial in 3 mL (10 mg/mL) | 8-12 weeks, with an optional extension to 16 weeksNone described | Community resource2026 |
| This 2026 page carries the same arithmetic with a shorter default course and the same disclaimers: no human trial exists, the FDA warns that PNC-27 products are unapproved and lack safety data, and the mouse evidence used intraperitoneal injection. It is written as an educational protocol rather than a report of anything observed. | |||||
How a course is commonly described
- Weeks 1-2Community-reported
Community protocols start at 100 mcg once daily subcutaneously, which at the usual 10 mg/mL dilution from a 30 mg vial is a single unit on an insulin syringe. The clinic sheet instead starts straight in at 200-300 mcg three times a week.
- Weeks 3-8Community-reported
The dose is raised by about 100 mcg every two to four weeks toward 300 mcg a day, with nothing measured along the way and no stated reason to stop or hold. No published experiment used this route or these amounts.
- Weeks 9-16Community-reported
The ladder tops out at 400-500 mcg a day, which the same page calls speculative, and the course ends at 8, 12 or 16 weeks depending on the guide. No break pattern is described because no course has ever been completed under observation.
- Preclinical comparisonPreclinical
The animal work gave 40 mg/kg daily by intraperitoneal injection for two or three weeks, with a 100 mg/kg arm in healthy mice. Scaled by body weight that is thousands of times the microgram community doses, by a different route, in leukaemia-bearing mice.
- The FDA has warned consumers not to buy or use PNC-27 as a cancer treatment, after an FDA laboratory found Variovorax paradoxus bacteria in a sample of a PNC-27 inhalation solution sold online. Nothing about PNC-27 has been evaluated or approved for any disease.
- No human trial of PNC-27 has been run or registered, so there is no human dose, schedule, pharmacokinetic figure or safety record. The microgram subcutaneous ladders above are vendor arithmetic built around vial sizes, and the sites publishing them say so.
- All of the positive preclinical work comes from the originating laboratories and their collaborators, several of whom hold patents or company roles, and the mouse dosing was 40 mg/kg daily by intraperitoneal injection. Anyone considering this compound for cancer is weighing an unapproved research chemical against treatments that have been tested.
Sources for this section (9)
- Targeting cell membrane HDM2: A novel therapeutic approach for acute myeloid leukemia
- HDM-2-Targeting Peptide PNC-27 Kills Cervical Cancer Cells but not Normal Cervical Cells
- The anti-cancer peptide, PNC-27, induces tumor cell lysis as the intact peptide
- Anticancer peptide PNC-27 adopts an HDM-2-binding conformation and kills cancer cells by binding to HDM-2 in their membranes
- PNC-27, a Chimeric p53-Penetratin Peptide Binds to HDM-2 in a p53 Peptide-like Structure, Induces Selective Membrane-Pore Formation and Leads to Cancer Cell Lysis
Plus 4 community resources (dosing guides, forum threads and vendor write-ups), reported above but not linked.
Overview
PNC-27 is a 32-amino-acid synthetic peptide that joins residues 12 to 26 of the human p53 tumour suppressor, the part that binds the HDM-2 (MDM2) protein, to penetratin, a membrane residency sequence from the Antennapedia protein. Groups at SUNY Downstate, Drexel and collaborating institutions report that cancer cells carry HDM-2 in their plasma membrane while untransformed cells do not, and that PNC-27 binds that membrane HDM-2 and forms pores, killing the cell by necrosis rather than apoptosis; cells engineered to display HDM-2 on their surface became susceptible. The compound has been tested in cancer cell lines, patient-derived ovarian tumour cells and mouse leukaemia models, but never in a human trial, and several of its investigators hold patents or company positions. In January 2017 the FDA warned consumers not to buy or use PNC-27 as a cancer treatment after finding the bacterium Variovorax paradoxus in a sample of an inhalation solution sold online.
What researchers are exploring
These themes organize the educational information currently available. Individual claims remain under source review and are not treatment claims.
- 1
PNC-27 Peptide
Molecular structure and properties
- 2
How Does the PNC-27 Peptide Work?
Mechanism of selective cancer cell destruction
- 3
Clinical Studies of the PNC-27 Peptide
Research outcomes in animal studies
- 4
Research on PNC-27
Scientific evidence and clinical trials
What is known and what still needs verification
Available context is organized without assigning unsupported study models or evidence grades.
- Not graded
PNC-27 Peptide
Molecular structure and properties
- Not graded
How Does the PNC-27 Peptide Work?
Mechanism of selective cancer cell destruction
Amounts recorded for PNC-27
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.200 mcg
- 2Dose · upper endpointSign in for schedule, duration and source context.500 mcg
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
Pro-Pro-Leu-Ser-Gln-Glu-Thr-Phe-Ser-Asp-Leu-Trp-Lys-Leu-Leu (p53 residues 12-26) followed by Lys-Lys-Trp-Lys-Met-Arg-Arg-Asn-Gln-Phe-Trp-Val-Lys-Val-Gln-Arg-Gly (the penetratin membrane residency peptide)
Also listed as
PNC-27, H-Pro-Pro-Leu-Ser-Gln-Glu-Thr-Phe-Ser-Asp-Leu-Trp-Lys-Leu-Leu-Lys-Lys-Trp-Lys-Met-Arg-Arg-Asn-Gln-Phe-Trp-Val-Lys-Val-Gln-Arg-Gly-OH (PubChem record title), SCHEMBL41760605, p53 (12-26)-penetratin chimera
InChIKey
MZCACYLMMMXSKC-KOCFKOPYSA-N
IUPAC name
(4S)-5-[[(2S,3R)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-6-amino-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-6-amino-1-[[(2S)-6-amino-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-6-amino-1-oxo-1-[[(2S)-1-oxo-1-[[(2S)-5-carbamimidamido-1-(carboxymethylamino)-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]propan-2-yl]amino]hexan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxohexan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxohexan-2-yl]amino]-4-methyl-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]-4-methyl-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxohexan-2-yl]amino]-3-(1H-indol-3-yl)-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-4-methyl-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]-3-carboxy-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-3-hydroxy-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxo-3-phenylpropan-2-yl]amino]-3-hydroxy-1-oxobutan-2-yl]amino]-4-[[(2S)-5-amino-2-[[(2S)-3-hydroxy-2-[[(2S)-4-methyl-2-[[(2S)-1-[(2S)-pyrrolidine-2-carbonyl]pyrrolidine-2-carbonyl]amino]pentanoyl]amino]propanoyl]amino]-5-oxopentanoyl]amino]-5-oxopentanoic acid
Limitations and unknowns
Sources
1 link carried over from the earlier page, awaiting verification.