Molecular profile
- Entry type
- Peptide research profile
Thymalin
Thymalin is a polypeptide preparation extracted from calf thymus, developed by Vladimir Khavinson.
Dosing & scaling, explained
Amounts reported for Thymalin are listed under Reported protocols, each with its source and study kind. No amount ladder is inferred from them. This is educational source context, not a protocol or recommendation.
No source-supported amount ladder is shown
Enter a target amount only from your own reviewed source. The calculator can convert it into concentration, volume and device markings, but it will not infer an amount from product availability or another compound.
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
Clinical context
Human study rows are described per source under Reported protocols; they belong to their trial populations and are not a general amount.
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 Thymalin
What published studies and recent community write-ups report about amounts, timing and course length. 2 clinical, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical2 rows | |||||
| Open randomized trial in hospitalized COVID-19 pneumoniaHospitalized adults in St. Petersburg with moderate or severe COVID-19, lymphopenia and bilateral pneumonia on CT, April to July 2020 | 10 mg | Once daily | Intramuscular | 5 daysNot applicable | Stem Cell Reviews and Reports (PubMed)2021 |
| Thymalin was added to the Russian standard of care, which at the time included hydroxychloroquine or lopinavir-ritonavir, antibiotics, enoxaparin and steroids. The authors report that IL-6, C-reactive protein and D-dimer fell faster and T-cell counts recovered more in the Thymalin group. The trial was open-label, used envelope randomization and was run by the institute that makes the drug. | |||||
| Long-term geriatric follow-up of Thymalin and Epithalamin266 elderly and older people followed for 6-8 years in St. Petersburg and Kiev | Courses given during the first 2-3 years of the 6-8 year observation; the per-dose amount is not stated in the abstract | Course-based; one group received Thymalin with Epithalamin annually for 6 years | Injection (the preparation is an intramuscular product) | Courses over 2-3 years, or annual courses for 6 yearsAnnual repetition described for the combination group | Neuro Endocrinology Letters (PubMed)2003 |
| The authors report 2.0-2.4 times fewer acute respiratory infections, less cardiovascular and bone disease and a 2.0-2.1 times lower mortality rate in the Thymalin group, rising to 4.1 times lower with annual Thymalin plus Epithalamin, compared with controls. This is the paper behind community longevity claims; it is a single-group, non-blinded observational series published by the developers, and its abstract gives no dose, so the 10 mg figure attached to it by community guides is an inference. | |||||
| Preclinical1 row | |||||
| Human hematopoietic stem cell cultureCultured human hematopoietic stem cells | Concentration not stated in the abstract; reported as 2-3 fold lower CD44 and CD117 expression and 6.8-fold higher CD28 expression | Cell culture exposure | Cell culture | Not statedNot applicable | Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine (PubMed)2020 |
| The authors read the marker shifts as Thymalin pushing immature CD117-positive cells toward mature CD28-positive T lymphocytes, and proposed this as the mechanism behind its use in viral infection. It is an in vitro marker study with no functional immune readout, from the same institute. | |||||
| Community-reported3 rows | |||||
| Community account of the Khavinson course | 10 mg | Once daily for 10 consecutive days | Intramuscular or subcutaneous | 10 daysRepeated 1-2 times per year | Community resource2026 |
| This 2026 guide is careful about identity: it calls Thymalin a pharmaceutical thymus extract that is not Vilon (Lys-Glu), not Thymogen (Glu-Trp), not thymulin and not thymosin alpha-1, and warns that US research vials labeled Thymalin may contain the extract, a synthetic dipeptide or something unknown. It describes the 10-day course as Russian labeling convention rather than a Western trial result. | |||||
| Community course lengths and repeat schedule | 10 mg per day for the full course (100 mg total); 5-10 mg per day for a shorter course | Once daily | Intramuscular or subcutaneous, often using a whole 10 mg vial per injection | 10 days for the full course; 3-5 days for a shorter courseFull course repeated every 6 months, or every 3-4 months in people described as immune compromised | Community resource2026 |
| This wiki page presents the 10-day course as decades of Russian practice and adds shorter 3-5 day courses for prevention or acute illness that have no study behind them. It also notes that a 10 mg vial is typically used in full each day, so a course consumes ten vials. | |||||
| Research-vendor listing (format only) | 10 mg per lyophilized vial; a third-party certificate reports 99.03% HPLC purity and 10.41 mg measured | Not stated | Not stated; sold for laboratory research only | Not statedNot stated | Community resource2026 |
| This is a vendor page, not a protocol. A single-peak HPLC purity figure is an odd fit for a product that is by definition a mixture of thymic peptides, which supports the community warning above that a vial labeled Thymalin may not be the Russian extract. The page gives no dosing information. | |||||
How a course is commonly described
- Days 1-10Community-reported
Community guides describe one 10 mg intramuscular or subcutaneous injection a day for 10 consecutive days, usually a whole vial per injection, as the standard course.
- Break of 6-12 monthsCommunity-reported
The course is then repeated once or twice a year. Guides describe this annual rhythm as the Khavinson school's convention, and one admits it is not an approved duration anywhere in the West.
- Clinical comparisonClinical
The one recent controlled trial used a shorter 5-day course of 10 mg intramuscularly in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and the long-term geriatric study gave courses over 2-3 years without stating the dose. No trial has tested the 10-day course against placebo in healthy people.
- Thymalin is an extract, so the 10 mg in a vial is 10 mg of a peptide mixture whose composition depends on the manufacturer. Russian pharmaceutical Thymalin and a research vial labeled Thymalin are not necessarily the same material.
- Every human study comes from the St. Petersburg institute that developed the product, is open-label or observational, and has not been independently replicated. The mortality figures quoted in community longevity circles come from one such observational series.
- Thymalin is approved in Russia and is not approved by the FDA or EMA. The rows above record what sources report, not endorsements of use.
Sources for this section (7)
- Results and Prospects of Using Activator of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Differentiation in Complex Therapy for Patients with COVID-19
- Peptides of pineal gland and thymus prolong human life
- Thymalin: Activation of Differentiation of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells
- The Influence of KE and EW Dipeptides in the Composition of the Thymalin Drug on Gene Expression and Protein Synthesis Involved in the Pathogenesis of COVID-19
Plus 3 community resources (dosing guides, forum threads and vendor write-ups), reported above but not linked.
Overview
Thymalin is a polypeptide preparation extracted from calf thymus, developed by Vladimir Khavinson and Vyacheslav Morozov's group in Leningrad as the first of their peptide bioregulators and approved as an immunomodulator in the Soviet Union in 1982. It is a mixture of short peptides below 10 kDa rather than a single molecule, so PubChem has no record for it (a name search returns the unrelated nonapeptide thymulin) and no chemistry card is shown; Khavinson's group later identified the dipeptides Glu-Trp and Lys-Glu and the tripeptide Glu-Asp-Pro as its active components. Russian clinical literature reports courses of 10 mg a day by intramuscular injection for immune conditions, a long-term geriatric follow-up, and a small 2020 trial in COVID-19 pneumonia, none of which has been replicated outside that research school.
What researchers are exploring
These themes describe recurring questions in published research. They are not claims of effectiveness or recommendations for use.
- 1
Immune & inflammation
Innate defense, inflammatory signaling and barrier models.
- 2
Organ bioregulators
Tissue-specific peptide and organ-system research.
- 3
Open randomized trial in hospitalized COVID-19 pneumonia
Thymalin was added to the Russian standard of care, which at the time included hydroxychloroquine or lopinavir-ritonavir, antibiotics, enoxaparin and steroids. The authors report that IL-6, C-reactive protein and.
- 4
Long-term geriatric follow-up of Thymalin and Epithalamin
The authors report 2.0-2.4 times fewer acute respiratory infections, less cardiovascular and bone disease and a 2.0-2.1 times lower mortality rate in the Thymalin group, rising to 4.1 times lower with annual Thymalin.
- 5
Human hematopoietic stem cell culture
The authors read the marker shifts as Thymalin pushing immature CD117-positive cells toward mature CD28-positive T lymphocytes, and proposed this as the mechanism behind its use in viral infection. It is an in vitro.
- 6
Community account of the Khavinson course
This 2026 guide is careful about identity: it calls Thymalin a pharmaceutical thymus extract that is not Vilon (Lys-Glu), not Thymogen (Glu-Trp), not thymulin and not thymosin alpha-1, and warns that US research vials.
What the current evidence can support
Study models remain visible so laboratory and animal findings are not mistaken for established human outcomes.
- Human
Human studies and registrations
2 protocol rows on this page come from human trials, trial registrations, regulator labels or reviews of human data. Approval status and populations are stated per row.
- Animal
Preclinical models
1 protocol row describe animal, cell or toxicology work. Amounts from these rows do not translate to people.
- Not graded
Community-reported use
3 rows record what blogs, vendor write-ups or forums describe for Thymalin. None has been verified against primary literature.
Identity, limitations and unknowns
Important limitations
- Every amount on this page is a report of what a source describes, not a protocol to follow.
- Preclinical and community rows do not establish a human amount, schedule or route.
- Formulation, purity and presentation vary by supplier and are not covered by the dossier.
Sources
4 curated references, each with its journal, year and study model, plus 3 community resources reported but not linked.
- Results and Prospects of Using Activator of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Differentiation in Complex Therapy for Patients with COVID-19
- Peptides of pineal gland and thymus prolong human life
- Thymalin: Activation of Differentiation of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells
- The Influence of KE and EW Dipeptides in the Composition of the Thymalin Drug on Gene Expression and Protein Synthesis Involved in the Pathogenesis of COVID-19