Cortagen
Cortagen is a synthetic tetrapeptide (Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro) from the Khavinson "short peptide bioregulator" family, designed to mimic the activity of the brain-cortex-extract preparation Cortexin, with evidence limited to rodent studies of peripheral nerve regeneration and gene expression and essentially no independent human clinical trial data specific to cognition.
This page is a research-orientation summary, not a dosing guide. For anything beyond general background, read the primary literature or talk to a qualified clinician — specifics like amount, frequency, or administration aren't something we publish here.
What it does & how it works
Cortagen was synthesized based on amino-acid analysis of the natural bovine/porcine brain-cortex extract Cortexin, and like other Khavinson short peptides is proposed to act intracellularly to modulate gene transcription in a tissue-selective manner. Microarray studies in mice have documented changes in expression of over a hundred genes across various functional categories following Cortagen administration, offered as evidence for this gene-regulatory mode of action, though the functional cognitive relevance of these transcriptional changes has not been established.
Typical results seen in research
The clearest experimental evidence for Cortagen comes from rodent sciatic nerve injury models, where it has been reported to accelerate functional and structural recovery of peripheral nerve tissue, and from gene-expression (transcriptomic) studies in animal tissue. Evidence specific to cognitive enhancement or CNS outcomes in humans is essentially absent from the peer-reviewed literature; older Russian sources reference use in patients recovering from peripheral nerve trauma and in chronic cerebral ischemia alongside Cortexin, but this should be treated as thin, regionally limited evidence rather than established clinical data.
How it’s commonly used
In the research and Khavinson-bioregulator literature, Cortagen has been studied and used via injection (commonly intramuscular or subcutaneous in animal and historical human bioregulator protocols); it has no globally approved pharmaceutical formulation or indication.
- Neuro Endocrinology Letters · 2004 Elucidation of the effect of brain cortex tetrapeptide Cortagen on gene expression in mouse heart by microarray
- Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine · 2000 Effect of tetrapeptide cortagen on regeneration of sciatic nerve
- Doklady Biological Sciences · 2002 The delayed effect of cortagen on the restoration of injured nerve function
- Eksperimental'naia i Klinicheskaia Farmakologiia · 2011 [Cortexin and cortagen as correcting agents in functional and metabolic disorders in the brain in chronic ischemia]
Curated from published literature for research orientation. Not an exhaustive review, and not a substitute for reading primary sources.