GHK-Cu in biological ageing and healthspan endpoints — evidence extract
No eligible study has been identified for GHK-Cu in biological ageing and healthspan endpoints. The Institute records the question as not assessed and states what would change that.
§1Evidence extract: Biological ageing and healthspan endpoints
§1.1Question and anchor outcome
- Population
- Interventions proposed to modify rate of biological ageing, assessed by composite biomarker clocks, functional measures, or mortality.
- Intervention
- GHK-Cu, topical in cosmetic and dermatological use; subcutaneous in research contexts
- Comparator
- As used in each contributing trial; reported per trial rather than pooled across comparator types
- Anchor outcome
- Epigenetic age acceleration
Additional outcomes the Institute extracts for this indication: Frailty index; Functional capacity; All-cause mortality.
§1.2Contributing trials
No trial has been identified for GHK-Cu in biological ageing and healthspan endpoints. No certainty rating is issued where that is so, for the reason given at §1.3.
§1.3Why no certainty rating is issued
The Institute rates certainty in a body of evidence. Where no eligible study has been identified there is no such body, and the domain-by-domain assessment used elsewhere in this series is not rendered: an inconsistency judgement requires two estimates to be inconsistent with one another, and an imprecision judgement requires an interval. Neither exists here.
The outcome is therefore recorded as not assessed. It is listed in the certainty index under that heading rather than at the lowest rating, because a rating of very low certainty says that evidence was found and is weak, and that is not what has happened.
What would change this: a controlled study in the population stated at §1.1, reporting the anchor outcome, retrievable in a form the Institute can appraise. The evidence gaps recorded in the monograph at §9 state what such a study would need to measure.
§1.4What this extract does not establish
References cited on this page
References are numbered in order of first citation in this document. Each superscript in the text links to its entry below.
- Pickart L, Margolina A. Regenerative and protective actions of the GHK-Cu peptide in the light of the new gene data. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2018;19(7):1987. doi:10.3390/ijms19071987 · PMID 29986520
- D’Hondt M, Bracke N, Taevernier L, Gevaert B, Verbeke F, Wynendaele E, De Spiegeleer B. Related impurities in peptide medicines. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 2014;101:2–30. doi:10.1016/j.jpba.2014.06.012 · PMID 25044089
- United States Pharmacopeial Convention. General Chapter ⟨788⟩ Particulate Matter in Injections. United States Pharmacopeia — National Formulary (USP–NF) 2024;USP 2024 Issue 1. identifier not held by the Institute
Identifiers are reproduced only where the Institute holds them. Where a digital object identifier or PubMed identifier is not shown, the Institute has recorded the journal and year and has not constructed an identifier.