Ovagen

1 Identity

Short-chain bioregulator of the Khavinson series. On the dominant attribution, a synthetic unmodified tripeptide of three proteinogenic L-residues, free at both termini, supplied as the lyophilized acetate or trifluoroacetate salt. the sequence designation carried as the primary identity is H-Glu-Asp-Leu-OH (EDL). Two other sequences are attributed to this trade name: H-Ile-Glu-Trp-OH (IEW), and a Lys-Glu-Asp-type tripeptide declared by the Khavinson-branded capsule line. The trade name is a Khavinson-series brand, not a chemical name, and it is carried as an alias to the sequence rather than the other way around — that ordering is a company rule, not a stylistic choice.

Sequence

CONTESTED, and this record does not pretend otherwise. The dominant commercial attribution, and the one specified here, is H-Glu-Asp-Leu-OH (EDL): three proteinogenic L-residues, free N-terminal alpha-amine, free C-terminal carboxylic acid, no amidation, no acylation, no cysteine, no disulfide, no aromatic residue and therefore no 280 nm chromophore. A further attribution circulates from the Khavinson-branded capsule line, which declares a lysine/glutamic acid/aspartic acid composition, i.e. A Lys-Glu-Asp-type tripeptide — which is Vesugen, another separately marketed product in the same series. Three residues, two of them acidic, and one Asp-Leu junction rather than the far more labile Asp-Gly.

Molecular formula

C15H25N3O8 (Glu-Asp-Leu, free base, the specified attribution). Competing attributions: C22H30N4O6 (Ile-Glu-Trp) and C15H26N4O8 (Lys-Glu-Asp).

Average mass

375.378 Da for the specified EDL attribution, from C15H25N3O8 on IUPAC 2021 abridged conventional atomic weights; the same formula on the pre-2021 table gives 375.374. The formula independently reconciles against the sequence: Glu C5H9NO4 plus Asp C4H7NO4 plus Leu C6H13NO2, minus two waters, gives C15H25N3O8 exactly. Competing attributions on the same table: 446.504 Da (C22H30N4O6, IEW) and 390.393 Da (C15H26N4O8, KED). A 71 Da spread on a three-residue peptide, which is why the sequence must be fixed in writing before any lot is released.

Monoisotopic mass

375.1642 Da neutral monoisotopic for EDL; [M+H]+ 376.1714. Competing attributions: 446.2165 with [M+H]+ 447.2238 (IEW); 390.1751 with [M+H]+ 391.1824 (KED, i.e. Vesugen). Each figure is computed from its own formula.

Salt / variant note

Four families, and the first two make mass spectrometry insufficient as the identity method on this article. (1) competing trade-name attributions, which are whole different molecules: EDL C15H25N3O8 375.378 / 375.1642; IEW C22H30N4O6 446.504 / 446.2165; KED C15H26N4O8 390.393 / 390.1751 — and KED at 390.1751 is exactly Vesugen, another marketed product in the same series, so a record specifying one of these will reject material that a mainstream supplier of the other actually ships. (2) isomers that no instrument separates. On the EDL reading, the leucine/isoleucine substitution EDI is an exact isomer — Leu and Ile share C6H13NO2 and are identical in average mass, in monoisotopic mass and in every b/y fragment a standard collision-induced experiment produces; only amino-acid analysis after hydrolysis resolves them chromatographically. Sequence-scrambled isomers DEL, LED, DLE, LDE and ELD are all C15H25N3O8 at 375.1642 and are separated only by MS/MS fragment ordering plus co-elution against a characterized standard. (3) truncation to another marketed article: on the EDL reading, Glu-Asp is C9H14N2O7; on the IEW reading, removing the N-terminal isoleucine leaves Glu-Trp, sold in this series as Thymogen, C16H19N3O5, 333.344 / 333.1325. (4) near-mass series members a nominal instrument will accept: Epitalon C14H22N4O9 390.349 / 390.1387 and Vesugen C15H26N4O8 390.393 / 390.1751 sit 0.0364 Da apart monoisotopic. Vendor transcription is a fifth hazard in its own right: one seller's listing prints the formula as "C15H25N3O" alongside 375.4, and a formula that does not compute to the weight beside it is a document defect regardless of what is in the vial.

2 Class & testing panel

Form

Single article

Testing panel

P1 — panel definition

3 Primary sources & evidence

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

The Khavinson short-peptide literature runs to roughly 160 PubMed-indexed publications spanning 1993 to 2025, is overwhelmingly authored or co-authored by V. Kh. Khavinson and affiliated with the Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology and associated Russian institutions, and consists substantially of reviews rather than primary trials. Identifiers by study type: Khavinson 2002, "Peptides and Ageing", PMID 12374906, review; Khavinson, Kuznik and Ryzhak 2012, PMID 23734519, review of animal work, with the companion 2013 PMID 24003726, review of human studies; Khavinson and Kvetnoi 2000, PMID 11276315, animal study in rats; Khavinson 2020, PMID 31808038, mechanism review; Avolio 2022, PMID 35408963, DOI 10.3390/ijms23073607, in vitro in the human THP-1 monocytic cell line and internationally co-authored. Primary literature under this trade name is thin, and literature on the tripeptide under its sequence designation is thinner still. No independently conducted, randomized, adequately powered human trial of any member of the series published in an indexed international journal was located, no controlled human trial meeting United States registrational standards was identified for this compound, and no independent toxicology was retrieved. The evidence page for this product will be short and will say so on its face, displaying the number of sources by study type at the top so a reader sees the size of the base before reading a word of it.

4 Storage & specification

Storage

White to off-white lyophilized powder, acetate or trifluoroacetate salt as declared, in the sealed original container with desiccant. Store at -20 degrees C plus or minus 5 degrees C, desiccated, protected from light, equilibrated to room temperature before opening. Short polar peptide salts of this type are strongly hygroscopic and the desiccant is a control with an acceptance check, not a courtesy; Karl Fischer is run at release and at every retest point. Ship frozen with a validated shipper and a temperature logger, and attach the excursion record to the lot file. Not to be stored in solution. One conditional: the amber-glass and filtered-lighting requirement that attaches to a tryptophan-containing sequence does not apply to the specified EDL article, which has no photolabile residue; it is reinstated in full the day a supplier's approved specification names a tryptophan-containing sequence instead.

Shelf life

Provisional 24-month retest interval at -20 degrees C plus or minus 5 degrees C, desiccated and light-protected, stated as provisional pending this company's own stability data. For the specified EDL sequence the stability-indicating attributes are water uptake, total related substances and the D-aspartate and D-glutamate content, and not tryptophan oxidation, which cannot occur in a sequence with no tryptophan. Three lots on real-time storage at -20 degrees C with pull points at 0, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months, accelerated arms at 25 degrees C / 60 percent RH and 40 degrees C / 75 percent RH. If a supplier's approved specification names a tryptophan-containing sequence, the interval shortens to a provisional 18 months, an ICH Q1B photostability arm is added, and the interval is dated on N-formyl-tryptophan and the oxidized species instead. Printed retest date on every vial, first-expiry-first-out enforced against it.