What is Vilon?

What sources report

Vilon is the dipeptide lysine and glutamic acid (Lys-Glu, or KE).³⁶ PubChem files it as lysylglutamic acid, CID 7010502, with the formula C11H21N3O5, a molar mass of 275.30 g/mol and CAS number 45234-02-4.¹² Vladimir Khavinson and colleagues synthesized it as a new immune-modulating dipeptide, in the same research line as Thymalin, a calf thymus extract, and Thymogen, a drug based on a dipeptide first isolated from that extract.⁴ In rat organ cultures, Vilon stimulated the growth of thymus explants, which Khavinson describes as a tissue-specific effect.⁵ The developers' 2021 review lists KE for immune regulation, antioxidant and stress-protective effects, protection against aging and nerve differentiation of stem cells.⁶ Nearly all of this work comes from cell and rodent studies.⁶²⁸

Immune cells, genes and skin cells

• Mouse thymus cells (2002): Vilon had the strongest co-mitogenic effect of three peptides tested, boosting cell division together with a mitogen, and raised sphingomyelinase activity in the cell membranes.¹⁷
• Mouse spleen cells (2002): Vilon switched on interleukin-2 mRNA production without any other stimulant.¹⁸
• Lymphocytes from old people (2004): Vilon loosened tightly packed chromatin, reactivated ribosomal genes and released genes repressed by chromatin condensation, an effect the authors found more marked with age.¹⁹
• Aging human mesenchymal stem cells (2023): KE raised SIRT1 gene expression 6-fold and SIRT1 protein 8.2-fold in "young" cells and lowered PARP1 and PARP2; computer modeling suggested KE can bind DNA sequences in those genes' promoters.²¹
• Human monocyte cell line THP-1 (2022): Vilon and four other Khavinson peptides lowered TNF and IL-6 expression triggered by bacterial lipopolysaccharide.²²
• Human skin fibroblasts (2017): KE increased the area of collagen type I expression by 83% in "old" cultures, and sirtuin-6 expression 1.6-fold in "young" and 2.6-fold in "old" cultures.²⁰ No study of skin or hair outcomes in people was found; Peptides and skin and hair compares other compounds.²⁰

Lifespan and tumors in animals

Results here depend on the model. Female CBA mice given Vilon under the skin from the sixth month of life were more active, had more endurance, lived longer and developed fewer spontaneous tumors.⁷ With a bladder carcinogen, tumors developed in 56% of Vilon-treated rats against 75.5% of controls, and early precancerous changes were halved.¹⁰ With the carcinogen 1,2-dimethylhydrazine, tumors developed in 14.3% of treated mice that survived to the first tumor finding at 46 weeks, against 60% of controls.¹¹ In mice with transplanted Lewis lung carcinoma, Vilon alone increased survival.¹²

The opposite appeared in mice bred to develop HER-2/neu breast cancer. Compared with saline, Vilon increased breast cancer incidence, shortened the time until tumors appeared and raised the total number of tumors, while Epithalon, tested in the same study, reduced the total number and maximum size of tumors.⁸ A companion report on that model found about the same number of mice with lung metastases in each group, but an incidence of metastases 2.6 times higher with Vilon than with Epithalon.⁹

Hormones, stress, liver and gut

• Old male rats (2006): regular Vilon activated sexual function, lowered blood prolactin and changed LH and ACTH levels.¹³ No human data on sexual function were found; see Peptides and men's health.¹³
• Male Wistar rats (2002): injected into the abdomen, Vilon raised resistance to emotional stress in open-field tests and reduced stress-related adrenal enlargement and thymus shrinkage.¹⁴
• Rats with chemically induced liver cirrhosis (2000): Vilon had only a weak effect on liver regeneration, with protein content 4.7% and cell ploidy 11.5% higher than in untreated rats.¹⁵ Peptides and healing and recovery sets this beside other compounds.
• Aged rats (2002): Vilon by mouth for one month raised the activity of the gut enzymes maltase and alkaline phosphatase in the small intestine.¹⁶

Human data

The human reports reviewed for this page are two short Russian abstracts. Added to standard therapy in elderly patients with type 1 diabetes, Vilon was reported to improve clotting balance (more antithrombin III and protein C, more fibrinolysis) and in most cases to lower the insulin dose needed; the abstract gives no patient numbers or control group details.²³ A 2005 report described adding Vilon to the radical treatment of elderly patients with stage III rectal and colon cancer and called its results preliminary, without numbers.²⁴ No trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov.²⁸ The blood sugar evidence is summarized on Peptides and blood sugar. Buy Vilon leads to the freeze-dried research vial for laboratory work.

Side effects

No controlled human safety data for Vilon were found, and no trial of it is registered.²⁸ The developers reported that long-term Vilon caused no unfavourable effects on the development of mice.⁷

• Tumor-promoting signal: in mice prone to HER-2/neu breast cancer, Vilon increased cancer incidence, shortened tumor latency and raised tumor numbers.⁸ In a companion report on that model, metastases to the lung were 2.6 times more frequent than with Epithalon, although about as many mice had them.⁹
• People with cancer: the one report reviewed here, a 2005 abstract on elderly patients with colorectal cancer, gives no patient numbers and no adverse-event data.²⁴
• Chemotherapy clash: in tumor-bearing mice, Vilon given at the same time as cyclophosphamide reduced survival, and the authors advised against giving Vilon and cytostatic drugs at the same time.¹²
• Product risks: Health Canada, which named Vilon among seized products, warns that unauthorized injectable peptides may cause infection, allergic reactions and other poor outcomes, may interact with other medicines, may contain high-risk ingredients or contaminants whether or not they are listed on the label, and may not have been made or stored safely.²⁵
• Gray-market risks: a 2026 review names mislabeling, wrong potency, contamination, non-sterility and harmful impurities among the most immediate risks of gray-market peptides, many of which are sold online as "for research use only", and notes that adverse-event systems may fail to detect emerging harms.³²
• Limits of the Russian record: a 2026 review in Frontiers in Aging, writing about Semax and Epitalon rather than Vilon, calls the absence of serious adverse events in the published Russian literature insufficient for conclusive safety determinations.³¹

Dosage information

No human dose of Vilon is established: it has no FDA label and no registered human trial, and the Russian clinical abstracts report no doses.^27282324 The doses below come from rodent studies; they describe those studies and are not doses for people.

Courses for people that appear on seller pages have no support from a drug label or a registered trial, and the human abstracts reviewed here give no dose.^27282324

Reconstitution and storage

The research vial holds freeze-dried Vilon.³⁰ The supplier's directions are to refrigerate the unmixed vial away from light and, once bacteriostatic water is added, to refrigerate the vial and finish it within 30 days; we found no published stability data for Vilon in solution to confirm that window.³⁰

General handling guidance from peptide makers applies:

• Moisture: both of Vilon's residues, Lys and Glu, are on GenScript's list of those prone to absorbing water from the air.³⁶ Bachem notes that absorbed moisture lowers the peptide content of the powder and may lower its stability, and advises warming a cold container to room temperature in a desiccator before opening it.³⁷
• Solution: Vilon lacks the residues GenScript flags as shortening life in solution (its Glu is C-terminal, not N-terminal), but GenScript still does not recommend storing peptides in solution, partly because bacteria can degrade them. If storage cannot be avoided, it suggests a pH 5 to 6 buffer, portions stored at -20 °C, no repeated freeze and thaw, and optionally a 0.2 micron filter.³⁶
• Concentration math: Bachem notes that research peptides are typically over 95% pure by HPLC, yet the powder may be only 70 to 90% peptide by weight because it also holds counter-ions and residual moisture, which matters when making a solution of a set concentration.³⁸

The reconstitution guide sets out the lab steps, the reconstitution calculator does the arithmetic, and How to store peptides covers storage in more depth.

Regulatory status

Vilon is not FDA approved; as of October 2026, a DailyMed search returns no label for it.²⁷ It does not appear on FDA's Category 2 list of compounding substances that may present significant safety risks, or among that page's withdrawn nominations, in the version current as of April 22, 2026.²⁹ Under 21 CFR 312.160, a new drug intended solely for test-tube or laboratory animal research may be shipped with a label that ends "Not for use in humans", and the shipper must use due diligence to assure that the recipient regularly does such tests and will use the shipment only for them.³³

• Canada: Health Canada's August 1, 2025 advisory named Vilon among unauthorized injectable peptide drugs seized from the online seller Canada Peptide. It said injectable peptides are regulated as prescription drugs in Canada and that none of the products had been assessed for safety, efficacy and quality.²⁵
• Sport: WADA's 2026 list does not name Vilon, but class S0 bans at all times any pharmacological substance not covered elsewhere on the list that has no current approval by any government health authority for human therapeutic use.²⁶ The 2027 list, approved September 10, 2026, adds "peptides" to the S0 examples.³⁴³⁵

How Vilon compares with related peptides

• Thymogen is a drug based on Glu-Trp, a dipeptide first isolated from the thymus extract Thymalin; Vilon (Lys-Glu) was a newly synthesized dipeptide from the same group.⁴
• Epithalon (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly) reduced tumor numbers and size in HER-2/neu mice in the same study where Vilon increased breast cancer incidence and tumor numbers.⁸
• Cortagen (Ala-Glu-Asp-Pro) had no co-mitogenic effect on mouse thymocytes where Vilon had the strongest, and it raised interleukin-2 mRNA in spleen cells less than Vilon did.¹⁷¹⁸
• Livagen stimulated liver explants in the 2001 organ-culture study in which Vilon stimulated thymus explants.⁵