Bench peptides — SS-20, SHLP-2, SHLP-3 and PNC-27
The four add up to 77 articles and zero registered studies on ClinicalTrials.gov. PNC-27 is described in a shop as an antitumor agent, without a single trial in people
Experimental material. Read before using anything from here.
Nothing on this page is a medical recommendation, prescription or treatment plan. It is an organized translation of protocols circulating in research communities and, where it exists, of what published trials tested. The two are marked differently — and they are not equivalent.
Most of the compounds here have no FDA approval for human use. Several are sold labeled "research use only", which means they have not gone through purity, sterility or dosage controls for human consumption. A community-reported dose is not a validated dose: it is what someone reported having done.
Talk to a licensed health professional before considering any of these compounds. If you already use one and feel anything unexpected, seek care — do not wait for the next routine test.
Summary
SS-20, SHLP-2, SHLP-3 and PNC-27: four peptides that exist in cell and animal papers and in store vials, and nowhere in between. None has a clinical trial registration of any phase.
Four peptides that never left the lab
SS-20 is from the same family as SS-31 (elamipretide). SHLP-2 and SHLP-3 are peptides encoded in mitochondrial DNA, from the same family as humanin and MOTS-c. PNC-27 is a peptide designed to kill cancer cells. All four are in the store library I used as a list of what was missing here.
A method caveat: "SS-20" on its own is an acronym for many things, so the search requires mitochondria, mitochondrial or Szeto, the surname of the person who created the family. The number is a floor, not a ceiling.
No number on this page came from the site's secondary source.
How much evidence exists, compound by compound
The numbers below were gathered by me on October 5, 2026, on PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov. Each row's query is written out in full, next to the number, so anyone can repeat it and contradict me — and so the script that rechecks this site's counts can run all of them.
| Compound | Query | Articles in PubMed | Studies on ClinicalTrials.gov |
|---|---|---|---|
| SS-20 | "SS-20" AND (mitochondria OR mitochondrial OR Szeto) | 12 | 0 |
| SHLP-2 | "SHLP2" OR "SHLP-2" OR "small humanin-like peptide 2" | 25 | 0 |
| SHLP-3 | "SHLP3" OR "SHLP-3" OR "small humanin-like peptide 3" | 15 | 0 |
| PNC-27 | "PNC-27" | 25 | 0 |
Where the numbers don't add up
- The four add up to 77 articles and 0 registered studies. There is no trial registration in people for any of them, of any phase.
- PNC-27 appears in the store described as antitumor and has 25 articles and 0 registered studies. I read the titles of all of them: they are cell studies, studies of the molecule's structure and of tissue taken from patients, plus two that are not about the peptide — the acronym coincides. None is a trial in people. Whoever treats cancer with it is running an experiment with no protocol, no control and no one measuring.
- SHLP-2 appears in cells, in mice and as a marker — measured in the blood in studies of prostate cancer and of liver fat. Judging by the titles, none of the articles is a trial in people. Measuring a peptide in the blood is not the same as showing that replacing it does anything.