Lysine-Proline-Valine (KPV)

Table of Contents

1. What Lysine-Proline-Valine Is
2. Where It Came From
3. How It Is Thought to Work
4. Laboratory and Animal Research
5. Human Studies
6. What the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Found
7. The July 2026 Advisory Committee Vote
8. The October 2026 Interim Policy
9. Safety Findings and Unknowns
10. What Is Not Known
11. Key Research Papers
12. Connections
13. Featured Videos

What Lysine-Proline-Valine Is

A peptide is a short chain of amino acids, the same building blocks that make up proteins. Lysine-Proline-Valine is about as short as a peptide gets: three amino acids joined in the order lysine, then proline, then valine. Chemists write the sequence as H-Lys-Pro-Val-OH. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's briefing document for its July 2026 committee meeting gives the formula C₁₆H₃₀N₄O₄ and a molecular weight of 342.43. The agency's slides describe it as a synthetic tripeptide that matches positions 11 through 13 of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. That hormone has 13 amino acids, so Lysine-Proline-Valine is its tail end, which chemists call the C-terminal (or COOH-terminal) end. For that reason the research literature often calls it “alpha-MSH(11-13).” Each of its three amino acids also has its own page: Lysine, Proline and Valine.

The parent hormone

The following describes research on alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone itself, not on Lysine-Proline-Valine. A 2008 review in Endocrine Reviews describes alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone as a 13-amino-acid peptide cut from a larger precursor protein, proopiomelanocortin. It reports that the hormone reduced inflammation in many animal models: fever, skin inflammation, eye, gut, brain and airway inflammation, and arthritis. The same review notes one obstacle to using the whole hormone as a medicine. It darkens skin, because it is the hormone that signals pigment cells. The authors describe Lysine-Proline-Valine as a fragment that keeps the anti-inflammatory effect in laboratory studies but lacks the pigment effect. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's slides say the same thing: in nonclinical studies the tripeptide “presented anti-inflammatory properties but lacked the melanotropic activity” of the parent hormone.

Free base and acetate: two forms, two substances

The raw powder a pharmacy buys to make a medicine is called a bulk drug substance. Lysine-Proline-Valine is sold in two forms:

• Free base is the peptide on its own. The agency's briefing describes it as a white to off-white freeze-dried powder that dissolves in water up to 0.70 mg/mL.
• Acetate is the same peptide paired with acetic acid (the acid in vinegar) as a salt. Salts like this are often used to make peptides easier to handle and dissolve. The briefing reports that the acetate dissolves in water at 5 mg/mL and gives its formula as the peptide plus one acetic acid, with a molecular weight of 402.5.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration treats the free base and the acetate as “different active pharmaceutical ingredients and hence … different” bulk drug substances. Each needs its own evaluation, and the committee voted on each separately. The difference matters for the October 2026 interim policy, which covers only the acetate. The briefing notes that the name in common use is not an official drug name: it is “a common name and not a United States Adopted Name.” The free base has the Chemical Abstracts Service registry number 67727-97-3. According to the briefing, which drew on supplier websites for this point, the acetate is sold under the same registry number.

Where It Came From

The fragment was first studied for fever. In 1984 Richards and Lipton reported that earlier work had found that alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone lowered fever, while shorter pieces of the hormone missing the last three amino acids did not. To test whether those last three were the active part, they gave Lysine-Proline-Valine to rabbits made feverish with an injected fever-causing substance (leukocytic pyrogen). The tripeptide reduced fever whether it was given into the brain (0.5 to 2.0 mg) or into the body (2 to 200 mg). The authors also noted that it was weaker than the whole hormone.

The research then turned to inflammation. In 1989 Hiltz and Lipton, writing from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, reported that the tripeptide reduced ear swelling caused by a skin irritant (picryl chloride) in mice, and that larger doses reduced it more. They suggested that drugs based on the tripeptide might one day be developed for inflammation. In 1991 the same group swapped individual amino acids for their mirror-image (“D”) forms. They found that the proline in the middle had to stay in its natural form for the peptide to work, while one altered version (with a mirror-image valine) was about four times as active in their mouse test.

In the 2000s groups in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the United States studied the fragment in cells and in animal models of gut, skin and eye inflammation. Two dermatology researchers from Münster, Germany, wrote in a 2019 review that peptides of this kind are promising candidates for treating skin wounds and ulcers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's briefing notes that such researchers “have suggested that investigational clinical studies are needed.” As of this writing, no such study in people has been published.

How It Is Thought to Work

Every finding in this section comes from cells grown in dishes or from animals. None has been confirmed in people. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's briefing concludes that “the molecular targets underlying the pharmacological effects” of the peptide “remain unknown.”

Probably not through the hormone's own receptors

Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone works mainly by attaching to proteins on the cell surface called melanocortin receptors. Several studies found that the three-amino-acid fragment does not seem to use them in the same way:

• In mouse immune cells (a macrophage cell line), a 2001 study from Uppsala University found that the fragment reduced nitric oxide, an inflammation signal, and blocked a switch for inflammation genes called nuclear factor kappa B. Even at very high concentrations, though, it did not attach to the cells' melanocortin 1 receptor, and it did not raise the receptor's usual chemical messenger, cyclic adenosine monophosphate. The whole hormone did both.
• A 2003 study from the William Harvey Research Institute in London found that the fragment reduced the build-up of white blood cells in mice with crystal-induced inflammation of the abdominal lining. A drug that blocks melanocortin receptors 3 and 4 did not stop this effect, and it still worked in mice whose melanocortin 1 receptor did not function. The authors concluded that the fragment was “unlikely” to act through melanocortin receptors and more likely worked by interfering with interleukin-1 beta, an inflammation signal.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's briefing adds that the fragment “was unable to displace” the hormone from its binding sites on rat brain tissue, mouse melanoma cells and mouse immune cells.

Not every result points the same way. A 2004 University of Sheffield study in human skin cells (keratinocytes) found no rise in cyclic adenosine monophosphate but saw calcium signals under certain test conditions, and in hamster cells engineered to carry the melanocortin 1 receptor the fragment, like the hormone, raised calcium inside the cells.

Carried into cells by a gut transporter

A 2008 study from Emory University in Atlanta proposed a route into cells. The gut lining carries a pump called peptide transporter 1 (PepT1), which normally takes up two- and three-amino-acid pieces of digested protein. The study reports that peptide transporter 1 is normally found in the small intestine and is switched on in the colon during inflammatory bowel disease. In human intestinal cell lines and human T cells grown in the laboratory, the researchers found that peptide transporter 1 carried Lysine-Proline-Valine into the cells. There, at very low (nanomolar) concentrations, it damped down nuclear factor kappa B and mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling and reduced the release of inflammatory messengers.

Laboratory and Animal Research

The animal studies below used mice, rats and rabbits. The amounts given and the ways they were given vary from study to study, and none of them measured the 0.1% skin cream or gel that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration evaluated.

Colitis and the gut

• Two mouse models of colitis (2008). Researchers at the University of Münster tested the peptide in two common mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease: colitis caused by dextran sodium sulfate in drinking water, and colitis caused by transferring certain immune cells. Treated mice recovered sooner, regained more weight and showed fewer inflammatory cells in the colon. In mice without a working melanocortin 1 receptor, treatment kept every animal in the treated group alive through chemically induced colitis. The authors concluded that the effect seems to be “at least partially independent” of that receptor.
• Given by mouth in drinking water (2008). In the Emory study, the peptide added to drinking water reduced colitis caused by dextran sodium sulfate or by trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid in mice, measured by lower inflammatory messenger levels.
• Tiny particles aimed at the colon (2010 and 2017). The same Atlanta group loaded the peptide into nanoparticles wrapped in a gel that breaks down in the colon. In mice, the particles protected against chemically induced colitis at a concentration about 12,000 times lower than the peptide dissolved in water, with similar effect. A 2017 version coated the particles with hyaluronic acid to steer them into gut lining cells and immune cells. In a mouse model of ulcerative colitis it protected the gut lining better than uncoated particles and lowered tumor necrosis factor alpha, an inflammatory messenger.
• Colitis-associated cancer (2016). In a mouse model in which long-lasting colitis leads to colon tumors, the peptide prevented tumor formation in normal mice. It had no such effect in mice lacking peptide transporter 1, which supports the idea that the transporter carries it into cells.

Eye, skin and wound studies

• Corneal scratches in rabbits (2006). Researchers at the University of Catania, Italy, scraped the surface layer from both corneas of rabbits and put eye drops of the peptide (1, 5 or 10 mg/mL) in four times a day for four days. The wounded area shrank faster than with salt-water drops. At 60 hours, the authors report, eight of eight treated corneas had fully regrown their surface layer, against none in the placebo group. A drug that blocks nitric oxide production stopped the effect, which suggests nitric oxide is involved. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's briefing cites this study among the animal wound-healing evidence it reviewed.
• Skin wounds. The briefing also cites a 2022 study in diabetic mice of a layered film dressing. The dressing released Lysine-Proline-Valine first and then epidermal growth factor. The study's abstract reports faster closure of full-thickness skin wounds with the combined dressing. Because the two substances were given together, that design does not show what the peptide did on its own. Background on skin repair is on the Wound Healing page.
• Getting through skin (2017). A laboratory study at Auburn University used skin from human donors after death (cadaver skin). With simple passive diffusion, the amount of Lysine-Proline-Valine that passed through the skin was below what the test could detect. Passage rose when the skin was first punctured with microneedles, and rose further with a small electric current (iontophoresis). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's briefing summarizes this as the peptide not permeating well through skin. Its conclusion uses stronger wording: the peptide does not permeate through cadaver human skin.

Brain injury

A 2013 study from Mainz, Germany, injected 1 mg/kg of the peptide into the abdomen of mice 30 minutes after a controlled injury to the brain. The injured area was smaller than in mice given salt water, and fewer nerve cells died by programmed cell death (apoptosis). Brain immune cells looked less activated. The inflammatory messengers tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-1 beta, however, were not reduced. The human condition is described on the Traumatic Brain Injury page.

Human Studies

No study of Lysine-Proline-Valine given to people has been published. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's briefing states that the nomination cited a short list of literature references and that “none were studies of [the peptide] administered in humans.” The briefing counts these as nine references in one place and eight in another. The agency added that it “did not identify data, such as clinical studies, on the use of [the peptide] in humans,” found no human studies of how the body absorbs or clears it by any route, and found no case reports.

A PubMed check for this page on 14 November 2026 found no record of the peptide (searched under both of its research names) indexed as a clinical trial, randomized controlled trial or case report. Some of the laboratory work above used human material: intestinal cell lines, T cells, skin cells, airway cells and donated cadaver skin. Such experiments are not studies in people. They show how cells and tissue respond in a dish, not whether a cream, gel or capsule is safe or helps any condition.

For comparison, the agency's briefing describes two nominated uses for the peptide: wound healing, and inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. It notes that various approved therapies “with established efficacy” exist for wounds and for those conditions.

What the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Found

The agency's staff reviewed the peptide in a briefing memo dated 12 May 2026 (briefing document) and presented slides on 23 July 2026 (presentation slides). The product proposed in the nomination was a 0.1% cream or gel for the skin. The nominator, a compounding pharmacy, had withdrawn the nomination. The briefing says that the agency was “evaluating the substances at its discretion.” It was unclear which form had been nominated, so the agency evaluated both on its own initiative. Neither form has a United States Pharmacopeia or National Formulary monograph (an official quality standard), and neither is part of an approved drug. The review followed four criteria for the 503A Bulks List, the list of raw ingredients that pharmacies may compound with. Background on that list is on the Compounded Peptides Review page.

1. Physical and chemical characterization

The agency judged both forms “not well-characterized” for two reasons. First, the naming does not follow official chemical naming standards (the United States Adopted Name, International Nonproprietary Name and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry systems). The briefing calls this a patient risk, because people “may be dosed with a different” substance than the doctor ordered. Second, it found too little quality information. For the free base, it found no published quality-control data on impurities, clumping (aggregates) or microbial testing, and no certificate of analysis in the nomination. For the acetate, a certificate of analysis was supplied. It reported total impurities of 0.9% against a limit of 2.0% or less, and a largest single impurity of 0.24% against a limit of 1.0% or less. The agency still found no information on what the individual impurities were, on possible aggregates or on microbial testing. The briefing also notes that the acetate breaks down under stress testing into a ring-shaped by-product called lysine-proline diketopiperazine. (One summary passage of the briefing says the acetate lacked a certificate of analysis. The body of the document says one was provided.)

2. Safety

The briefing found no studies of toxicity in animals (single-dose, repeat-dose, genetic damage, reproduction or cancer), and no studies of how the body absorbs, spreads or clears the peptide. Its safety conclusion: “potential safety risks associated with the use in humans are unknown.” The safety section below gives more detail.

3. Evidence of effectiveness

For both nominated uses, wound healing and inflammatory conditions, the agency found “a lack of evidence to evaluate the effectiveness.” It also noted that the nominator did not say which kind of wound the product was meant for, and that wounds and certain inflammatory conditions “can be serious or life-threatening.”

4. Historical use in compounding

The nominator gave no historical-use data. The agency found that the “earliest and extent” of compounding with either form “is unknown.” Outsourcing facilities (larger compounders registered under section 503B) reported no products containing either form from January 2017 to June 2025. The briefing records that several websites promote the peptide as injections, oral products, skin products and nasal sprays. Some sell it in mixtures with other peptides, among them Body Protection Compound-157 (BPC-157) and Thymosin Beta-4 Fragment (TB-500). Promoted uses include mast cell activation syndrome, histamine intolerance, recovery from COVID-19, Lyme disease, mold toxicity and pain syndromes. The briefing adds that “it is unclear whether compounded products are being used in all of these instances.”

Other countries and pharmacopeias

The briefing reports that neither the European Pharmacopoeia (11.8 edition, 2025) nor the Japanese Pharmacopoeia (18th edition) has a monograph for either form, and that the European Medicines Agency lists no authorized product containing either form. No primary or peer-reviewed source read for this page reports a national registration of the peptide as a medicine anywhere.

The staff proposal

Balancing the four criteria, the staff wrote that they “weigh against” listing. Their proposal: “we propose not adding [the peptide] (free base) or [its] acetate to the 503A Bulks List.”

The July 2026 Advisory Committee Vote

The Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee is a panel of outside experts that advises the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It does not make decisions. The agency's advisory calendar describes such recommendations as “non-binding”: the agency “generally follows the recommendations but is not legally bound to do so.” Lysine-Proline-Valine was discussed on 23 July 2026, for the uses “wound healing and inflammatory conditions.” Following the agency's posted questions, the committee voted separately on each form. The question each time was whether the substance belongs on the 503A Bulks List, and a yes vote meant recommending that the agency add it.

• Free base: 8 yes, 6 no, 1 abstention. The committee recommended listing.
• Acetate: 8 yes, 6 no, 1 abstention. The committee recommended listing.

Where these numbers come from. As of 14 November 2026 the agency had posted no minutes or transcript of the meeting. The tallies are the counts its meeting officer (the Designated Federal Officer) read aloud “for the record” on the agency's own broadcast, whose addresses are given in its webcast information document. The counts add up to 15, the number of members eligible to vote on this peptide under the agency's roster. The October 2026 policy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states only that the committee “voted in favor of inclusion.”

Agency staff and committee disagreed

The committee's vote went against its own agency staff, who had proposed not listing either form. At the meeting, agency participants said that the staff memos were recommendations, not final decisions, and that “the final decisions would come out through rulemaking,” a public notice-and-comment process. One said the agency had no deadline for starting that rulemaking. The same day the committee also recommended Body Protection Compound-157, Thymosin Beta-4 Fragment and Mitochondrial Open Reading Frame of the 12S rRNA-c (MOTS-c). As of 14 November 2026 the agency had published no proposed or final rule adding Lysine-Proline-Valine to the 503A Bulks List or keeping it off. Reports on how the committee was made up, and the full set of votes, are on the Compounded Peptides Review page.

The October 2026 Interim Policy

On 30 October 2026 the Federal Register published a notice from the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (91 FR 68526, FR Doc. 2026-22192). It announced a policy on compounding with six peptides, Lysine-Proline-Valine among them, and was signed by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The notice calls the policy a “draft” and also “this interim policy.” The policy document itself, which carries no date or signature, calls itself interim. The full policy is explained on the Peptide Compounding Enforcement Discretion page.

What enforcement discretion means

Enforcement discretion means a government says it does not plan to act against something not formally allowed. Here the department states that, until a final rule decides whether each peptide goes on the 503A Bulks List, it “does not intend to take action against a State-licensed pharmacy, Federal facility, or licensed physician” that compounds with one of the six peptides, as long as all ten conditions are met. Compounding means a pharmacist or doctor preparing a medicine for an individual patient. Section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act sets the rules for that kind of compounding.

What it covers for this peptide

• Form: Lysine-Proline-Valine acetate only, defined by its sequence, formula and molecular weight of 402.5. The free base, which the committee also recommended, is not covered.
• Dosage forms: the policy states that enforcement discretion for the acetate “is appropriate for topical and oral dosage forms,” meaning products applied to the skin and products taken by mouth. Injections and nasal sprays of this peptide are not covered. The committee and the agency's staff had evaluated only a 0.1% cream or gel for the skin.
• The department's reasoning for this peptide: the policy describes the agency staff's safety concerns as reflecting “an absence of information rather than an observed signal.” It says the conditions “address the risks through lot-level testing, single-active pharmaceutical ingredient … products, and MedWatch reporting.” More generally, it says the policy aims to discourage the “continued, widespread use of certain research-use-only peptides supplied by foreign manufacturers that pose a safety risk to US patients.”

The conditions in plain words

1. The peptide is on the policy's list of six, with the identity and routes set out for it: for this peptide, the acetate, on the skin or by mouth.
2. The raw ingredient comes from a manufacturer registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that follows current good manufacturing practice, with a valid certificate of analysis: a test report of identity, purity, strength and contaminants such as bacterial toxins (endotoxins), heavy metals and microbes.
3. Compounders report serious adverse events, whether or not the drug seems to be the cause, and quality problems to the agency's MedWatch program and to the states involved.
4. The label reads: “This is a compounded drug product. Not for resale.”
5. The product contains only one listed peptide, not a mixture, and the only device packed with it is a syringe cleared by the agency.
6. For a product taken by mouth, the compounder keeps records showing that the formula reaches an adequate level in the human body (oral bioavailability), which the policy calls “inherently difficult and complex” for peptides.
7. All other legal requirements still apply, including clean (not insanitary) preparation and a prescription written for the individual patient.

The policy itself numbers ten conditions; the list above groups them. The oral-bioavailability condition applies directly to Lysine-Proline-Valine taken by mouth. The policy's own testing table describes injectable dosage forms as the standard route for peptides because of their low oral bioavailability, yet the same policy covers this peptide only for skin and oral use.

What it does not do

• It is not approval. The policy states that compounded drugs are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which “does not review their safety, effectiveness, or quality before they are marketed.”
• It does not place the peptide on the 503A Bulks List. Only a final rule does that. The Federal Register notice says future rulemaking “may propose adding some or all of these peptides.”
• It is not binding and “does not establish any rights for any person.”
• It ends for each peptide when a final rule decides that peptide. The department may also revisit it earlier “if, among other things, a safety signal or product quality issue arises.”
• It names only state-licensed pharmacies, federal facilities and licensed physicians. It does not mention outsourcing facilities, though it contains no sentence that expressly excludes them.

Status as of 14 November 2026

The notice states no effective date. Written comments were accepted until 13 November 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time in docket HHS-OASH-2026-0496. As of 14 November the Federal Register's records counted about 289 comments received, and 115 had been posted publicly. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' policy states that this peptide was in the agency's significant-safety-risk group (“Category 2”) from September 2023 until 22 April 2026. The agency's own Category 2 web page, last updated 22 April 2026, still lists the peptide in its table of substances “nominated but withdrawn,” along with the agency's safety notes. Lysine-Proline-Valine is not an approved drug and is not on the 503A Bulks List.

Safety Findings and Unknowns

The safety record for this peptide is mostly a record of missing information. The findings, as the agency's briefing and slides report them:

• No animal toxicity studies. The nominator did not submit, and the agency did not find, studies of short-term or repeated-dose toxicity, damage to genes, effects on reproduction or development, or cancer risk for either form.
• No human exposure data. “Potential safety risks associated with the use of [the peptide] in humans are unknown,” the briefing states. The agency was “particularly concerned about the lack of any human data … via any route of administration.”
• Adverse event reports. A search of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System and the medical literature through 3 December 2025 found no reports. A search of the agency's food and supplement adverse event database from 2004 to 3 December 2025 found no cases either. No case reports were found. The agency's slides add that the lack of reports “does not imply that the substance is safe or lacks toxicities.” The briefing adds that the agency cannot draw definitive conclusions about safety from its adverse event reports alone.
• Immunogenicity and aggregation. Immunogenicity is the chance that a substance provokes the immune system, for example by making antibodies against it. Peptides can also clump together (aggregate), and the briefing treats both as open safety questions. It notes that “peptides with as few as two amino acids have been shown to aggregate.” It found “insufficient data to conclude” that either form of this peptide does not carry these risks.
• Products sold for “research use.” The briefing documents websites promoting the peptide in forms (injections, nasal sprays, mixtures) that neither the nomination nor the committee evaluated. A PubMed check for this page found no published laboratory analysis of the contents or purity of products sold online as this peptide. The interim policy itself describes foreign research-use-only peptides as posing “a safety risk to US patients.” Separately, in August 2026 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent five warning letters to online sellers of peptides labelled “research use only.” None of the five letters names Lysine-Proline-Valine.

Decisions about any medicine, compounded or not, belong with a clinician who knows the person's history.

What Is Not Known

• Whether Lysine-Proline-Valine helps any wound, skin disease or bowel disease in people. No human trial has been published.
• How much of the peptide reaches the body through the skin or the gut, and how long it stays. No human absorption studies exist. A cadaver-skin study found that passive passage through skin was below the level its test could detect.
• How it works. The agency calls its molecular targets unknown. Cell studies point to interference with inflammation signals and to uptake by peptide transporter 1, but these ideas come from dishes and mice.
• Whether it is safe in people, including whether it provokes immune reactions. No animal toxicity studies or human exposure data were found.
• What the impurities in sold material are, and how products sold online compare with labelled contents.
• Whether the animal results carry over to people. The mouse colitis models and rabbit corneal scratches are standard research tools, but they are not the same as human Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis or chronic wounds.
• What the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will finally decide. As of 14 November 2026 no proposed rule had been published, and the interim policy was in draft form with its comment period just closed.

Key Research Papers

1. Richards DB, Lipton JM. Effect of alpha-MSH 11-13 (lysine-proline-valine) on fever in the rabbit. Peptides. 1984;5(4):815-7. PubMed PMID: 6333677
2. Hiltz ME, Lipton JM. Antiinflammatory activity of a COOH-terminal fragment of the neuropeptide alpha-MSH. FASEB J. 1989;3(11):2282-4. PubMed PMID: 2550304
3. Hiltz ME, Catania A, Lipton JM. Anti-inflammatory activity of alpha-MSH(11-13) analogs: influences of alteration in stereochemistry. Peptides. 1991;12(4):767-71. PubMed PMID: 1788140
4. Mandrika I, Muceniece R, Wikberg JE. Effects of melanocortin peptides on lipopolysaccharide/interferon-gamma-induced NF-kappaB DNA binding and nitric oxide production in macrophage-like RAW 264.7 cells: evidence for dual mechanisms of action. Biochem Pharmacol. 2001;61(5):613-21. PubMed PMID: 11239505
5. Getting SJ, Schiöth HB, Perretti M. Dissection of the anti-inflammatory effect of the core and C-terminal (KPV) alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone peptides. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2003;306(2):631-7. PubMed PMID: 12750433
6. Elliott RJ, Szabo M, Wagner MJ, Kemp EH, MacNeil S, Haycock JW. alpha-Melanocyte-stimulating hormone, MSH 11-13 KPV and adrenocorticotropic hormone signalling in human keratinocyte cells. J Invest Dermatol. 2004;122(4):1010-9. PubMed PMID: 15102092
7. Bonfiglio V, Camillieri G, Avitabile T, Leggio GM, Drago F. Effects of the COOH-terminal tripeptide alpha-MSH(11-13) on corneal epithelial wound healing: role of nitric oxide. Exp Eye Res. 2006;83(6):1366-72. PubMed PMID: 16965771
8. Kannengiesser K, Maaser C, Heidemann J, Luegering A, Ross M, Brzoska T, et al. Melanocortin-derived tripeptide KPV has anti-inflammatory potential in murine models of inflammatory bowel disease. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2008;14(3):324-31. PubMed PMID: 18092346
9. Dalmasso G, Charrier-Hisamuddin L, Nguyen HT, Yan Y, Sitaraman S, Merlin D. PepT1-mediated tripeptide KPV uptake reduces intestinal inflammation. Gastroenterology. 2008;134(1):166-78. PubMed PMID: 18061177
10. Brzoska T, Luger TA, Maaser C, Abels C, Böhm M. Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone and related tripeptides: biochemistry, antiinflammatory and protective effects in vitro and in vivo, and future perspectives for the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Endocr Rev. 2008;29(5):581-602. PubMed PMID: 18612139
11. Laroui H, Dalmasso G, Nguyen HT, Yan Y, Sitaraman SV, Merlin D. Drug-loaded nanoparticles targeted to the colon with polysaccharide hydrogel reduce colitis in a mouse model. Gastroenterology. 2010;138(3):843-53.e1-2. PubMed PMID: 19909746
12. Schaible EV, Steinsträßer A, Jahn-Eimermacher A, Luh C, Sebastiani A, Kornes F, et al. Single administration of tripeptide α-MSH(11-13) attenuates brain damage by reduced inflammation and apoptosis after experimental traumatic brain injury in mice. PLoS One. 2013;8(8):e71056. PubMed PMID: 23940690
13. Viennois E, Ingersoll SA, Ayyadurai S, Zhao Y, Wang L, Zhang M, et al. Critical role of PepT1 in promoting colitis-associated cancer and therapeutic benefits of the anti-inflammatory PepT1-mediated tripeptide KPV in a murine model. Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2016;2(3):340-357. PubMed PMID: 27458604
14. Xiao B, Xu Z, Viennois E, Zhang Y, Zhang Z, Zhang M, et al. Orally Targeted Delivery of Tripeptide KPV via Hyaluronic Acid-Functionalized Nanoparticles Efficiently Alleviates Ulcerative Colitis. Mol Ther. 2017;25(7):1628-1640. PubMed PMID: 28143741
15. Pawar K, Kolli CS, Rangari VK, Babu RJ. Transdermal Iontophoretic Delivery of Lysine-Proline-Valine (KPV) Peptide Across Microporated Human Skin. J Pharm Sci. 2017;106(7):1814-1820. PubMed PMID: 28343991
16. Böhm M, Luger T. Are melanocortin peptides future therapeutics for cutaneous wound healing? Exp Dermatol. 2019;28(3):219-224. PubMed PMID: 30661264

PubMed Topic Searches

1. PubMed: Lysine-Proline-Valine tripeptide
2. PubMed: alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone 11-13
3. PubMed: Lysine-Proline-Valine, peptide transporter 1 and colitis
4. PubMed: melanocortin peptides and wound healing

Back to Table of Contents

Connections

• Peptides — the six peptides covered by the 2026 interim compounding policy
• Peptide Compounding News, 14 November 2026 — the news article on the policy
• Peptide Compounding Enforcement Discretion — the interim policy in full
• Compounded Peptides Review — Category 2, the 503A Bulks List and the July 2026 meeting
• Drugs — every drug page on the site
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease — the condition behind the mouse colitis models
• Ulcerative Colitis — one form of inflammatory bowel disease
• Psoriasis — a nominated use with no human data
• Eczema — a nominated use with no human data
• Wound Healing — how skin repairs itself
• Wound Healing Animation — the stages of repair, animated
• Lysine — the first of the three amino acids
• Proline — the middle amino acid
• Valine — the last amino acid

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