What Cortagen Is
Cortagen is a synthetic tetrapeptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro (AEDP), C17H26N4O9, 430.41 g/mol. Within the bioregulator family it is classified as brain-cortex derived, and it is one of the members with published work naming it.
What makes Cortagen worth reading closely is not the size of its literature but a tension inside it — one that bears directly on the family's central claim about tissue specificity.
Research use only. Supplied for laboratory research. Not for human or veterinary use. No marketing authorisation exists and no therapeutic claim is made.
What the Published Studies Report
Injured nerve function
A study in Doklady Biological Sciences reported a delayed effect of Cortagen on restoration of injured nerve function (Kolosova et al., 2002, PMID 12134478). The word "delayed" in the title is doing real work: the reported effect emerged over time rather than acutely, which shapes how any follow-up would need to be designed.
Chronic cerebral ischaemia
Work in Eksperimental'naia i Klinicheskaia Farmakologiia examined Cortexin and Cortagen as correcting agents in functional and metabolic disorders of the brain in chronic ischaemia (Zarubina & Shabanov, 2011, PMID 21476278). As with several papers in this family, the design pairs the tetrapeptide with a separate preparation, so effects cannot be assigned to Cortagen alone.
Gene expression — in heart
The most interesting entry is a microarray study elucidating the effect of the brain-cortex tetrapeptide Cortagen on gene expression in mouse heart (Anisimov et al., Neuro Endocrinol Lett 2004, PMID 15159690).
That is worth pausing on. A compound classified as cortex-associated was measured for transcriptional effects in cardiac tissue. Whatever the result, the choice of design implies the investigators did not treat tissue association as a constraint — which sits awkwardly beside the family's framing of each peptide as organ-specific. Anyone using the tissue-specificity claim as a premise should read this paper before relying on it.
Reading the Evidence
The literature is small and old. Three papers, the most recent from 2011, largely in Russian-language journals.
Two of three are combination or cross-tissue designs. That limits attribution more than the abstract count of papers suggests.
No amount is established for any species or context, because no controlled human programme exists.
Structure and Handling
- Sequence. Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro (AEDP), tetrapeptide.
- Formula. C17H26N4O9, 430.41 g/mol.
- Form. Lyophilised powder, ≥98% purity, third-party certificate of analysis per batch.
- Storage. Sealed vial at −20 °C, protected from light; reconstituted solution at 2–8 °C.
- Reconstitution. Bacteriostatic water down the vial wall, never onto the powder cake. Do not shake. See the reconstitution calculator.
Related Compounds
Pinealon (Glu-Asp-Arg) is the other CNS-associated member and has a somewhat larger literature. Vilon appears in the same early microarray line of work. See the bioregulator overview for the full family.