D tier · weak
Vilon has a substantial literature for a two-residue peptide — around 80 PubMed records, mouse lifespan and tumour-incidence experiments, and chromatin-decondensation work partly replicated by a Georgian cytogenetics group without Khavinson co-authorship — but ClinicalTrials.gov has no registered study of it, and its human evidence amounts to two small uncontrolled Russian reports in the originating group's own gerontology journal. The lifespan and geroprotection claims outrun that data by a wide margin.
vilon
Vilon is the dipeptide Lys-Glu, synthesised by Khavinson's group as a defined analogue of the activity they attribute to the thymus extract Thymalin, and now sold as a general immune and ‘geroprotective’ bioregulator. Its evidence base is preclinical: mouse lifespan and spontaneous-tumour studies, inhibition of chemically induced rat bladder tumours, effects on intestinal absorption and liver regeneration, and reactivation of condensed chromatin in lymphocytes from elderly donors. Human reports exist but are confined to two small Russian-language papers in Advances in Gerontology, and no trial of Vilon has ever been registered.
// we supply this one
available as a research reagent
≥ 98% HPLC · lyophilised powder · batch certificate published. Grade D above is our own and is not adjusted because we stock it.
the explanation
Vilon is just two amino acids joined together, lysine and glutamic acid. Russian researchers report that it made mice live longer, reduced tumours in rats, and loosened up the tightly packed DNA in white blood cells from old people. In humans there are only two small Russian reports, no proper trials have ever been registered, and no Western laboratory has tried to confirm the anti-ageing claims.
regulatory status
Not a medicine anywhere; research reagent in the UK
Vilon holds no marketing authorisation as a medicinal product in the UK, EU, US or Russia; unlike Thymalin and Thymogen it never became a registered drug, and reaches Russian consumers only through supplement-category products — the ophthalmic supplement Normophthal, listed by Russian references as a dietary supplement rather than a medicine, is the most visible. A ClinicalTrials.gov search returns no registered study of Vilon. In Great Britain it has no marketing authorisation, is not a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act, and is not an authorised novel-food or food-supplement ingredient, so it is lawfully supplied here only as a laboratory research reagent, not for human use. Lys-Glu is not named on the WADA Prohibited List, although WADA's S0 class covers unapproved substances generally.
how it works · proposed mechanism
Vilon's proposed mechanism is direct epigenetic action: the dipeptide is said to reach the nucleus and interact with DNA and chromatin proteins so that tissue-specific genes are de-repressed. The distinctive feature of Vilon within this family is that the chromatin claim has been examined by a laboratory outside St Petersburg, in Tbilisi, which makes it the least self-contained mechanistic story in the set — though still not an independent clinical one.
Chromatin decondensation in senescent lymphocytes
Lezhava's cytogenetics group at Tbilisi State University reported that Vilon reactivates condensed chromatin in cultured lymphocytes from elderly donors, first in a 2004 Biogerontology paper co-authored with Khavinson and then in Georgian Medical News papers in 2006 and 2023 without Khavinson co-authorship. This is the closest thing to independent replication anywhere in the Khavinson family, but it is cell culture on donor lymphocytes, not a clinical outcome.
Gene-expression changes in animal tissue
DNA-microarray work reported changes in mouse cardiac gene expression after Vilon and Epithalon, and organotypic culture studies report tissue-selective stimulation of cell differentiation. Effect sizes and reproducibility are hard to assess because the experiments come almost entirely from one institute and the arrays predate current reporting standards.
Tumour and lifespan effects in rodents
Reported findings include inhibition of chemically induced rat urinary bladder tumours, reduced spontaneous tumour growth and increased lifespan in mice, and modulation of TGF-beta with reduced microvascular permeability. These are the studies that generate the geroprotector marketing, and none has been repeated outside Russia.
Named as an active constituent of Thymalin
The originating group states that Lys-Glu (KE) and Glu-Trp (EW) are the active substances of the registered drug Thymalin. This is used to imply clinical validation by proxy, but it is a hypothesis about which molecules in an extract matter, and it means Vilon has no evidence base separable from Thymalin's.
what’s reported
evidence shape
7 sourcesThe composition of the cited literature by study type. This describes the shape of the evidence, not its quality — and it does not by itself set the grade.
⚠ the catch
Vilon is a two-amino-acid molecule carrying claims — organ-specific epigenetic regulation, reduced tumour incidence, extended lifespan — that would be considered extraordinary for a monoclonal antibody. The supporting evidence is rodent and cell-culture work from one institute, plus two small Russian-language human reports in Advances in Gerontology (one on immunity and coagulation markers in diabetes, one in elderly cancer patients, the latter co-authored by Khavinson and Ryzhak), neither controlled nor registered. ClinicalTrials.gov has no record of Vilon, and it is not a licensed medicine anywhere; the Russian eye supplement Normophthal that contains it is a dietary supplement, not a drug. The one point genuinely in its favour is that a Georgian cytogenetics group in Tbilisi published Vilon chromatin work in 2006 and 2023 without Khavinson as an author, which is more independence than any of the Cytogen peptides can show — but it remains in vitro. Vendors also frequently borrow Thymalin's Russian registration to imply that Vilon is an approved medicine; it is not.
key published findings
- PubChem CID 7010502 confirms Lys-Glu as C11H21N3O5, 275.30 g/mol, CAS 45234-02-4, with Vilon and Normophthal among its synonyms.
- ClinicalTrials.gov contains no registered study of Vilon, Lys-Glu or any sibling bioregulator in this batch; the only term-matched hit is an unrelated breast-cancer pathology study.
- Human evidence is limited to two small reports in Advances in Gerontology: effects on immune status and coagulation in patients of different ages with diabetes (Kuznik and colleagues, 2007) and use in elderly cancer patients (Ias'kevich and colleagues, 2005, with Khavinson and Ryzhak as co-authors).
- The chromatin-reactivation finding has partial independence: Lezhava's Tbilisi group published it with Khavinson in Biogerontology in 2004 but without him in Georgian Medical News in 2006 and again in 2023.
- Vilon does appear in the originating group's own 2013 clinical-results review alongside Thymalin, Thymogen, Epithalamin, Prostatilen, Cortexin and Retinalamin — unlike Vesugen and Vesilute, which are absent from it.
- Rodent claims include inhibition of chemically induced rat urinary bladder tumours and increased lifespan with reduced spontaneous tumour growth in mice, all from the originating institute and none replicated outside Russia.
limitations of the evidence
- There is no registered trial, no controlled human study, no human pharmacokinetics and no bioavailability data for Lys-Glu.
- The two human reports are small, uncontrolled as described, Russian-language, and published in the journal most closely associated with the originating group.
- The partial independence of the Tbilisi chromatin work does not extend to any clinical claim, and cell-culture chromatin decondensation is several inferential steps away from a health outcome.
- Evidence is shared with Thymalin and Thymogen by the originating group's own account that KE and EW are Thymalin's active substances; Thymalin's Russian registration is not evidence for Vilon.
- A dipeptide making tissue-specific epigenetic claims is a very large claim for a very small molecule: there is no receptor, no characterised human transport route to the nucleus, and no measured intranuclear concentration in any human tissue.
- Almost the entire animal and mechanistic literature appears in Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Advances in Gerontology and similar Russian-translated venues with limited external peer scrutiny.
documented safety signals
- No safety signals are documented, but no human safety study of Lys-Glu has ever been conducted — absence of reported harm here reflects absence of monitored exposure, not demonstrated safety.
- Reported inhibition of tumour growth in rodents is presented as a benefit, but agents that alter chromatin state and cell differentiation carry theoretical potential to act in either direction on proliferating tissue; no long-term carcinogenicity study outside the originating group exists.
- Unapproved research material carries unquantified impurity, endotoxin and stereochemical-purity risk, with no regulator-audited manufacturing standard behind it.
- There is no adverse-event reporting system covering the compound in any jurisdiction, so post-marketing signals could not be detected even if they occurred.
identity
| full name | Vilon (L-lysyl-L-glutamic acid, Lys-Glu) |
| category | Longevity |
| modality | peptide |
| formula | C11H21N3O5 |
| molar mass | 275.3 g/mol |
| cas | 45234-02-4 |
| sequence | Lys-Glu (KE) |
laboratory handling
| storage | Lyophilised powder is stored desiccated at -20 °C and protected from light. Once reconstituted, laboratory practice is refrigeration at 2-8 °C for short-term use, or aliquoting and freezing to avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles. Handling information only; this material has no approved human use. |
| solubility | Short hydrophilic peptide, readily soluble in sterile or bacteriostatic water and in dilute aqueous buffer. Lot-specific solubility is stated on the certificate of analysis. |
| co-studied with | Lys-Glu is usually paired with Glu-Trp and sold as an immune combination, and the two are also the dipeptides the originating group names as Thymalin's active substances — so the pairing restates a single hypothesis rather than combining two independently supported agents. |
Handling information describes laboratory practice for a research reagent. It is not a preparation guide for use in humans.
the receipts
7 citedPubChem, US National Library of Medicine · 2026 · official
ClinicalTrials.gov, US National Library of Medicine · 2026 · official
PubMed, US National Library of Medicine · 2026 · official
Advances in Gerontology / Uspekhi Gerontologii · 2013 · review
Biogerontology · 2004 · preclinical
Georgian Medical News · 2006 · preclinical
PubMed, US National Library of Medicine · 2026 · clinical study
others in Longevity