Humanin

A mitochondria-derived peptide encoded in the 16S rRNA region of mitochondrial DNA. It acts inside the cell, blocking Bax-mediated apoptosis, and outside it at a cell-surface receptor complex, with effects on insulin sensitivity and neuronal survival. It belongs to the same family as MOTS-c.

No established dosing convention exists for this in people. The work behind it is animal and cell research, and human use is sporadic enough that no consistent pattern has formed in community reporting either. We are not publishing a ladder because there is not one to publish — this is the "nobody knows yet" case rather than the "we have not got to it" case. If you have seen numbers circulating, bring them to us before you draw anything up.

Animal and cell work only. The human observational finding - higher levels in long-lived families - is real, but it is a correlation, not evidence that taking it does anything.

Humanin is a compound the community is interested in and has barely used. Almost all the discussion is about the science - that it is encoded by mitochondrial DNA, that it declines with age, that the centenarian-offspring studies found higher levels in people who live long - rather than about experience. The comparison that comes up constantly is MOTS-c, from the same family, which people have actually run and can describe; Humanin threads tend to be someone asking whether it is worth trying and someone else answering that MOTS-c is the one with reports behind it. Where first-hand accounts exist they are vague and centre on energy, which is the hardest thing to judge honestly. This is a compound where the genuinely interesting part is the biology.