GHK-Cu + KPV - Beauty Blend

1 Identity

Fixed-ratio two-component article: a copper(II) coordination complex co-lyophilized with a synthetic tripeptide.

Sequence

Per component; each component's full identity lives on its own record and is cross-referenced here rather than restated. GHK-Cu: ligand H-Gly-L-His-L-Lys-OH held as the copper(II) complex through a three-nitrogen donor set — the N-terminal amine, the deprotonated Gly-His amide nitrogen, and the histidine imidazole nitrogen — with the fourth equatorial position occupied by water or by a bridging carboxylate. KPV: H-Lys-Pro-Val-OH, free acid specified; the C-terminal amide is a different molecule 0.98 Da lighter, and it is a specified impurity, not a synonym.

Molecular formula

Per component. GHK-Cu C14H22CuN6O4 for the 1:1 complex free of added counterion, or C16H26CuN6O6 for the mono-acetate, which is the form one institutional supplier ships under the name; the salt form is stated as a measured finding and not restated from the label. KPV C16H30N4O4 as the free acid; mono-acetate C18H34N4O6; mono-TFA C18H31F3N4O6; bis-TFA C20H32F6N4O8, which is 40.0 percent counterion by gross weight. No combined formula is written; a mixture has none.

Average mass

Per component. GHK-Cu 401.914 Da for the 1:1 complex and 461.966 Da for the mono-acetate, the copper figure computed on the conventional atomic weight 63.546, an isotope-weighted average and not the mass of any single molecule. KPV 342.440 Da as the free acid. At the specified 50 mg plus 10 mg, a 60 mg total nominal fill: 124.405 micromol GHK-Cu against 29.202 micromol KPV, a 4.26-to-1.00 molar ratio out of a 5.0-to-1.0 mass ratio. Copper contributes 7.905 mg of the 60 mg fill, 13.2 percent of the gross, and that figure is an acceptance criterion rather than a note.

Monoisotopic mass

Per component. GHK-Cu 401.0999 Da neutral for the 63Cu isotopologue, [M+H]+ 402.1072, with the 65Cu isotopologue at 403.098; the natural 63Cu-to-65Cu envelope at 69.15 to 30.85 is part of the identity and is shown on the certificate, the 65Cu peak never being reported as an impurity. KPV 342.22671 Da neutral, [M+H]+ 343.23399, [M-H]- 341.21943, with the C-terminal amide at 341.24269 — a 0.98 Da separation that a nominal-mass instrument cannot resolve, so its output is not accepted for that component.

Salt / variant note

The copper fork, three of whose members circulate under the name "GHK-Cu": the 1:1 complex at 401.914; the mono-acetate at 461.966; metal-free GHK at 340.384, which contains no copper and whose powder is white rather than blue-violet; AHK-Cu at 415.94, exactly +14.03 Da away; prezatide copper acetate at 800.33, a 2:1 bis-complex; and palmitoyl tripeptide-1 at 578.80. The KPV fork: free acid 342.44 against C-terminal amide 341.46, both carried under the title "alpha-MSH(11-13)" by different institutional suppliers; and KdPT, Lys-D-Pro-Thr, 344.41, a different sequence carrying a D-proline. Salt: acetate or trifluoroacetate, stated per component. Ratio: 50 mg plus 10 mg is this company's presentation, market products of this description circulate at other ratios, and none is standard.

2 Class & testing panel

Form

Fixed-ratio blend

Testing panel

P5 and P1 — panel definitiontogether, as a union rather than the higher of the two. P5 governs the copper complex — copper stoichiometry by ICP-MS, the Cu(II) d-d absorption band, the copper isotope envelope in the mass spectrum, and the salt form stated as a finding. P1 governs the tripeptide. The article is released against both panels in full, each panel run on the component it governs and never once on the blended vial. ICP-MS is mandatory here as the orthogonal copper handle rather than optional. Per-component deconvolution is unusually clean on this article: every residue present except lysine is unique to one component or the other, which makes it the best-conditioned blend of its group and is worth stating because the neighboring copper blends are not so placed

3 Primary sources & evidence

The index reports the design and provenance of the literature, not a conclusion about effect.

Published literature exists for each component, is graded on that component's record and is cross-referenced from here rather than restated. The GHK-Cu literature is graded D and carries identifiers including Pickart and Margolina, Cosmetics 2015, DOI 10.3390/cosmetics2030236, and Dymek et al., Pharmaceutics 2023, DOI 10.3390/pharmaceutics15102485. The KPV literature is graded D and is entirely preclinical and analytical. None of it is literature about this mixture, and one attribution error is named because it circulates widely: the human clinical material published under the KPV name belongs to KdPT, a different molecule. No published study of this fixed two-component combination was located.

4 Storage & specification

Storage

Blue to blue-violet co-lyophilized solid in a Type I amber glass vial with a PTFE-lined closure — a laboratory-chemical presentation, non-sterile, with no sterility claim and no stoppered-and-crimped injection format. Store at -20 degrees C plus or minus 5 degrees C, tightly closed, desiccated with in-pack desiccant, protected from light. Sealed vials are equilibrated to room temperature before opening, which matters particularly on this article because the KPV component is a 342 Da solid on which condensed moisture is a large proportional insult and diketopiperazine formation is both moisture- and temperature-accelerated. Color is a real in-process identity check here and is recorded at each handling step: at 50 mg of the complex in a 60 mg fill alongside a white tripeptide the chroma is only mildly diluted, so cake color remains usable on this article in a way it is not on the four-component blends. 2-8 degrees C is acceptable for transit and for working stock held no longer than 30 days.

Shelf life

Provisional 24 months at -20 degrees C plus or minus 5 degrees C, desiccated and protected from light, from the date of QA release, taken as the shorter of the two component intervals and stated as provisional pending this company's own data. The blend runs its own protocol and does not inherit the component studies, with a mandatory 6-month interim pull on each of the first three lots. Stability-indicating attributes are chosen for the mixture rather than for either component alone: per-component net content, the measured ratio, copper stoichiometry by ICP-MS, the d-d band lambda-max, cyclo(Lys-Pro) and free valine, water content, counterion, and any new peak above 0.10 percent. Full ten-unit content uniformity per component stands until three consecutive lots from one site and one blending process demonstrate homogeneity, at which point the weight-variation route may be argued on that evidence.