STUDresearch · Peptide
ARA-290
Also known as
Cibinetide · pHBSP · PHBSP · pyroglutamate helix B surface peptide · Pyroglutamate HBSP · ARA 290 · ARA290 · Helix B surface peptide · pGlu-Glu-Gln-Leu-Glu-Arg-Ala-Leu-Asn-Ser-Ser
Community talk. May be wrong. Not medical advice. Not a protocol. Not for human or animal use.
Peptide
Some talk
Systemic
SubQ / IV
Healing & repair
Systemic — SC or IV for innate-repair / neuropathic and inflammatory pathways; not a local joint depot or topical.
What people say
An EPO-derived repair-signaling peptide studied for small-fiber neuropathy and related nerve symptoms. ARA-290 is designed without EPO's red-cell stimulation; pain relief, nerve structure and glucose measurements are separate outcomes, not proof of a cure.
Doses people talk about
Separate disease-specific research arms, not a progression. The full notes retain 2/4/6 mg PK doses, higher anecdotes, non-daily charts and cost/source cautions.
How it may feel
Reports range from reduced burning/tightness to no relief. One 4 mg/day log improved around day 12–13 but later lost much benefit; that author ultimately preferred gabapentin. Another 4 mg/day reporter had no relief at day 14.
Neuropathy SubQ study4 mg once daily for 28 days
T2D study and trial-mirroring logs; a positive early report and a null day-14 report both used this amount.
Sarcoidosis SubQ arms1 / 4 / 8 mg daily for 28 days
Separate placebo-controlled dose groups; the structural readout did not establish that more was better.
Earlier clinical IV2 mg, 3 times weekly for 4 weeks
12-dose sarcoidosis schedule; separate exploratory work used three doses over 1 week. Not a conversion to daily SubQ.
Half-life & effect duration
- Half-life in the body
- Under-the-skin injectionAbout 20 minutes; reported range 17–26 minutes
- IV · reported estimatesAbout 1.1 minutes or about 2 minutes
- Felt duration people report
- During a courseDelayed relief in some accounts; others report no benefit
- Post-course reportsResidual relief for days to weeks, or benefit fading after stopping
- Longer ongoing-use accountInitial benefit lasted about 7 months before losing much effect
Cycles people discuss
28-day daily SubQ blocks anchor much of the discussion; the T2D study also observed 28 days off. Repeat courses and continuous use for months are community extensions, not an approved maintenance or lifetime schedule.
Timing
Once-daily SubQ is the later trial pattern; AM versus PM has no established advantage in these notes. Convenience and site rotation are discussed, while minutes-long blood kinetics and weeks-long symptom observations are different clocks.
Stacks
BPC-157, TB-500 and KPV appear in repair/inflammation lore, without controlled combo evidence. Clinical participants and community users may also take neuropathy or diabetes medicines, which complicates attribution.
Watch for
Serious AEs: The T2D paper reported 4 serious events in the active arm, with 2 initially judged possibly related by investigators. A renal-worsening case also involved increased furosemide; a later cellulitis/fatal-MI case was judged unrelated by the safety committee. This is not zero-risk. Infection, hypersensitivity and unexpected events remain concerns with injectables; arm-specific primary details matter.
Tap a line to jump into the full notes. Research only — may be wrong.
Timing context & sources
Half-life in the body
About 20 minutes terminal half-life after SubQ is reported in the clinical paper's healthy-volunteer PK background.
This is a cited PK estimate, not elimination measured in the T2D patients. Older notes retain 17–26 minutes SubQ and about 2 minutes IV; a separate review gives about 1.1 minutes IV.
Underlying individual volunteer data were not inspected. Peak timing, IV kinetics, downstream repair signaling and subjective pain relief are not interchangeable.
- ARA 290 improves metabolic control and symptoms of neuropathy in type 2 diabetes (2015) (opens in a new tab)Methods: 4 mg SC daily for 28 days plus 28-day follow-up, background medications continued, and quoted normal-volunteer ~20 min half-life; Results: Safety arm-specific serious events.Neuropathy/T2D trial, not isolated healthy-user experience. The PK paragraph cites a separate review/volunteer program, so 20 min is reported here rather than newly measured in these patients. Later PMC fetches returned CAPTCHA and Europe PMC XML 404; actual earlier Methods/Safety content was read.
- Non-erythropoietic tissue-protective peptides, Collino et al. (2015) (opens in a new tab)§4 Clinical Studies, printed p.35/PDF p.3: healthy-volunteer 2/4/6 mg SC and 2 mg IV comparisons; SC ~20 min, IV 1.1±0.1 min, SC peaks 12–15 min.Review quoting volunteer work, not the underlying individual PK dataset. Values differ from older profile summaries; route, source and endpoint distinctions are retained without certifying old 6-min or 17–26-min shorthand.
Felt duration people report
No reliable one-dose relief window is established; reports describe delayed, variable changes across a course.
The early positive log and its later loss of benefit contrast with a 4 mg/day null report. They describe cumulative experience, not plasma residence.
Unverified product/co-treatment, different clinical histories and incomplete offset reporting. Early modeled post-course pain decay is not a personal dose's duration.
- Effectiveness of ARA-290 — original assessment and later same-author updates (opens in a new tab)transhumanist2000 OP: 4 mg/day 28 days, benefit day 12–13, last 2 days 8 mg, no reported side effects/cost; same-author later replies describe benefit waning around 7 months, gabapentin ultimately more effective, and subsequent gabapentin use for pain.Self-report, unverified vial and concurrent TRT/deca/GH acknowledged in replies; no proof of regeneration, dose threshold, universal safety or causal tolerance. No sourcing/preparation guidance is adopted.
- ARA 290 14 days in, no relief — subsequent discussion (opens in a new tab)swim2lakes OP: zero relief at day 14; later own 4 mg/day clarification and stopped-use/new-diagnosis reply; transhumanist2000 reply: 2–3 week onset, variable relief and episodes without benefit.Diagnoses/severity, product and co-medication differ. Claims that a break resets tolerance are personal explanations, not established biology. No precise off-dose duration.
What people say
- Forum sensory goals: Users hope for less burning, tingling, electric pain, meal-related symptom flares, constricted-foot feel, and barefoot allodynia. forumanecdote
- Onset anecdotes: Some detailed SFN logs describe little change for ~10–12 days then a step improvement around day 12–13 on 4 mg daily; others stay flat. anecdote
- Sleep / days: Occasional credit for better sleep or more usable days from lower night pain — not framed as sedation. anecdote
- Vs EPO narrative: Framed as capturing EPO’s tissue-protective story without the stroke / clotting risk story of raising hematocrit. trialforum
- Disease-modifying hope: Corneal / GAP-43 fiber signals fuel “repair, not just masking” talk; long-term regeneration after stop is unproven and contested in forums. trialforum
- Sarcoidosis SFN — nerve structure: Phase 2b (n=64; 1 / 4 / 8 mg SC daily × 28 days) reported the largest placebo-corrected gain in corneal nerve fiber area at 4 mg (~23% increase from baseline discussed in press summaries; CNFA change +697 μm² vs placebo at 4 mg, P = 0.012); 1 mg and 8 mg arms weaker on that primary-style readout. trial
- Regenerating skin fibers: Same phase 2b reported increased regenerating intraepidermal GAP-43+ fibers in the 4 mg group and correlations between CNFA change and GAP-43+ / 6-minute-walk changes. trial
- Pain & function (sarcoid): Pain improved across arms including placebo; moderate–severe pain subgroup showed a clinically meaningful placebo-corrected pain drop leaning toward 4 mg (not always statistically definitive). Earlier IV work (2 mg IV Mon/Wed/Fri × 4 weeks) reported better SFN symptom scores vs placebo. trial
- Diabetic neuropathy (T2D): 4 mg SC self-injected daily × 28 days vs placebo; PainDetect neuropathic symptom scores improved in the active arm; subjects followed ~28 days off drug (56-day observation window). trial
- Metabolic signals (T2D trial): Same diabetes study reported favorable movement in HbA1c and lipid profiles across the 56-day window — discussed as secondary interest, not as a diabetes drug claim. trial
- Early open IV pain work: Short courses of 2 mg IV (three doses over ~1 week, or longer MWF schedules) reduced pain scores in sarcoidosis and diabetes SFN cohorts in exploratory designs; effect after a 1-week course waned with an estimated post-treatment pain-relief half-life on the order of a few days. trial
- Preclinical breadth: Animal and mechanistic papers discuss neuropathy models, microglial dampening, cytokine reduction, wound/organ protection, and other injury models — used as background lore, not human proof. animal
Doses people talk about
- Community titration talk: Some start ~2 mg for a few days then move to 4 mg; end-of-cycle bumps to 8 mg for a day or two appear in anecdotes; others run ~6 mg daily. Claims that “under ~2 mg is placebo-tier” are forum opinion, not a trial conclusion (1 mg was a formal arm). anecdoteforum
- 3×/week SC charts: Some protocol pages map 2 mg SC Mon/Wed/Fri (weekly total ~6 mg) as a research-chem convenience schedule echoing the old IV cadence — still not the Culver/Brines daily 4 mg design. forum
- Course cost talk: Domestic research-chem estimates in SFN threads have run roughly hundreds of USD per 28 days at 4 mg/day and higher at 8 mg/day — a major practical limiter vs IVIg-scale care debates. anecdoteforum
- Source flag: Gray-market mg labels ≠ trial Bachem/GMP identity, fill weight, sterility, or endotoxin control. forum
- Community mirror of phase 2: 4 mg SC daily × 28 days appears in self-experiment logs; thigh or abdomen and site rotation are mentioned. This is an attributed trial-mirroring pattern, not an established default or home-use protocol. forum
- Clinic / vendor non-daily schedules: Wellness write-ups sometimes list ~2 mg SC twice weekly (e.g., Mon/Thu) or multi-mg 2–3×/week — easier and cheaper than daily 4 mg but not the phase 2 daily regimen. forum
- Microgram clinic charts (caution): Occasional marketing tables list tens of micrograms daily — orders of magnitude below published multi-mg human trials; treat as non-aligned with the phase 2 program unless a primary source is shown. forum
- Earlier IV exploratory schedule: 2 mg IV infused over ~2 minutes (often in a few mL saline), Monday / Wednesday / Friday for 4 weeks (12 doses) in sarcoidosis SFN; smaller open work used three 2 mg IV doses over one week. trial
- PK bridging doses (healthy volunteers): SC 2 mg, 4 mg and 6 mg and IV 2 mg were studied for exposure. Older summaries quote SC Cmax ~1.6 / ~2.0 / ~7.4 ng/mL and t½elim ~20 min SC versus ~2 min IV. The reviewed 2015 clinical paper quotes ~3 ng/mL after 4 mg SC with ~20 min terminal half-life; a separate review quotes different peaks and ~1.1 min IV. These source-dependent summaries are not interchangeable dose/concentration targets. trial
- 12-week exploratory (DMO): Diabetic macular oedema pilot literature discusses 4 mg SC daily for 12 weeks — longer than the 28-day neuropathy blocks; still investigational. trial
- Framing: Discussion ranges from published trials and community self-reports only — not advice, not prescriptions, not safety-validated home protocols. Identity/purity of research vials is not trial-grade. forum
- Most-cited SC trial dose: 4 mg subcutaneously once daily for 28 consecutive days — used in type 2 diabetes neuropathy work and as the standout arm in sarcoidosis dose-ranging. trial
- Sarcoidosis SC dose-ranging (phase 2b): 1 mg, 4 mg, or 8 mg SC daily × 28 days vs placebo (~16 subjects per arm planned; 64 total). Structural nerve endpoints favored 4 mg over 1 mg and, interestingly, over 8 mg on CNFA — so “more mg always better” is not what that study showed. trial
How it may feel
- Minutes–hours post dose: The existing notes describe no classic “stim” or high and little acute psychoactive wave. Rapid plasma peaks/falloff — including the older ~6 min SC shorthand, whose source context differs from the reviewed 12–15 min summary — cannot establish when pain relief begins or ends. trialforum
- Days 1–7: Often little sensory change; some note injection-site sting, mild headache, fatigue, or transient GI unease; rare anecdotes of a temporary sensory flare. trialforumanecdote
- Days ~10–14: An early community check-in, not a universal response window. One SFN log reported first benefit around day 12–13 on 4 mg daily; another reporter had zero relief at day 14 and clarified use of 4 mg/day. anecdoteforum
- Weeks 3–4 (end of 28-day block): Trial primary and symptom readouts cluster here (CNFA, questionnaires, walk tests); many self-experimenters decide continue / stop / re-dose after this block. trialforum
- Weeks–months after a course: Existing reports describe residual relief for days to weeks or use-dependent benefit that fades after stopping. The original day-12–13 positive logger later said it worked for about 7 months before losing much effect, and subsequently found gabapentin more effective. Those later outcomes qualify the early benefit, not establish a one-dose wear-off time. forumanecdote
- Longer continuous use (forum): Logs of multi-month daily or near-daily SC use exist; cumulative “cure” vs ongoing symptom control is unresolved; cost usually caps duration. anecdote
- No change by ~4 weeks: Forums typically revisit diagnosis (SFN confirmed?), concurrent meds, dose adequacy (sub-2 mg skepticism), product identity, and expectations before simply “stacking more peptides.” forum
- Days 29–56 (off-drug follow-up in diabetes work): T2D protocol watched metabolic and symptom signals for ~a month after the last dose — “does anything stick?” is the research and forum question. trial
Cycles people discuss
- Off-period community practice: Many pause after a short course to judge residual change before re-ordering expensive vials. forum
- Re-runs / maintenance: Forums describe repeating 28-day blocks when symptoms return, or continuing months if benefit is use-dependent; multi-year controlled safety is not established. forumanecdote
- Continuous daily use: Less documented in trials than fixed 4-week blocks; continuous use is almost entirely community extrapolation. forum
- 28-day daily SC blocks: Standard trial-mirroring cycle — daily SC for 4 weeks then stop or reassess; sarcoidosis phase 2b participation extended observation toward ~16 weeks from start. trial
- IV month: Older design — 2 mg IV three times weekly for 4 weeks, not daily SC. trial
- Diabetes off-period built in: 28 days on + ~28 days observation off in the T2D study — informs “run a month, watch a month” forum logic. trial
- No established chronic label schedule: Orphan designation ≠ approved maintenance dose, taper, or lifetime plan. trial
Timing
- Timing of day: Once-daily SC in later trials; no strong AM-vs-PM efficacy consensus — convenience and site rotation dominate discussion. forum
- IV plasma half-life: Older human PK summaries quote about ~2 minutes. A reviewed 2015 secondary account instead quotes ~1.1 ± 0.1 minutes after 2 mg IV in healthy volunteers; these are route- and source-specific estimates, not a felt-duration clock. trial
- SC plasma half-life: About ~20 minutes terminal half-life is quoted for healthy volunteers in the 2015 T2D paper's Methods, citing separate PK work; older summaries also give ~17–26 min. The clinical paper does not newly measure that elimination range in the neuropathy patients. trial
- Peak after SC: Cmax occurs within minutes; the older ~6 min shorthand remains source-dependent. The reviewed volunteer-PK summary instead places SC peaks at ~12–15 min across 2/4/6 mg comparisons, with dose-related exposure. Peak time is neither elimination half-life nor onset of nerve repair. trial
- Why effects may outlast plasma: IRR framed as a molecular switch — cascades (anti-inflammatory / repair programs) can continue after peptide is gone; preclinical PD used to justify intermittent or daily-but-not-continuous plasma coverage. trialanimal
- Post-course pain-effect decay (early IV work): After a short 1-week IV series, pain relief returned toward baseline with an estimated effect half-life of a few days in modeling; longer treatment in a single-patient extension suggested a longer carry — hypothesis-generating only. trial
- Route exposure note: 2 mg IV produced much higher brief Cmax than multi-mg SC but comparable order-of-magnitude AUC to higher SC doses in volunteer comparisons — used in debates about IV clinic nostalgia vs practical daily SC. trial
More on what it is
- Why people search it: Phase 2 human work in sarcoidosis SFN and type 2 diabetes neuropathy plus open SFN forum self-experiments after research-chemical access. trialforum
- What it is not: Not recombinant EPO, not a hematocrit-boosting PED, not an approved gabapentinoid alternative, not an oral peptide with established gut bioavailability in trials. trialforum
- What it is: Synthetic 11-amino-acid peptide engineered from erythropoietin’s helix-B surface (sequence often written Pyr-Glu-Gln-Leu-Glu-Arg-Ala-Leu-Asn-Ser-Ser / pGlu-…-Ser-Ser); ~1257 Da; research code ARA-290; clinical nonproprietary name cibinetide (pHBSP / pyroglutamate helix B surface peptide). trial
- Developer / status: Advanced by Araim Pharmaceuticals; US and EU orphan-drug designation for sarcoidosis (US also Fast Track for related programs); not an FDA-approved neuropathy drug and not a routine prescription product. trial
- Mechanism (plain): Selectively engages the innate repair receptor (IRR) — a tissue-protective EPO-receptor / β-common (CD131) heteromer — for anti-inflammatory and repair signaling without stimulating red-cell production the way full EPO does. trial
- Molecular-switch idea: Plasma residence is minutes, but brief IRR activation is argued to start longer cascades — so short half-life is not treated as “must dose hourly.” trial
Stacks
- BPC-157: Most common community pairing for “structural repair + nerve/IRR” storytelling; no controlled combo data; attribution of any win is confounded. forum
- TB-500 / TB4 fragments: Occasional third leg in “repair stacks” with BPC; systemic recovery lore, not SFN-trial-based. forum
- KPV: Discussed in some pain/inflammation peptide guides as NF-κB / gut-inflammation adjacency alongside ARA-290 — pure community theory. forum
- Wolverine / GLOW-style blends: Indirect adjacency only (BPC+TB ± GHK-Cu ± KPV); ARA-290 is usually a separate vial, not a named blend component. forum
- Standard neuropathic meds: Many users stay on gabapentinoids, SNRIs, topical agents, etc.; any improvement is hard to credit to ARA-290 alone. forum
- Metabolic / glucose control: In diabetic or glucose-sensitive SFN threads, diabetes meds, diet, and activity are co-credited when symptoms ease. forum
- Lifestyle co-factors: PT, pacing, sleep hygiene, footwear changes often listed when function improves. forum
- Solo isolation preference: Some SFN experimenters deliberately avoid multi-peptide stacks for one 28-day ARA-290 block to read a cleaner n=1 signal. forum
- Trial reality: ARA-290 was the investigational treatment, not a peptide stack; the T2D study continued existing glucose and neuropathic-pain medications. Calling that monotherapy would wrongly erase background care. trial
Storage notes
- No mix instructions here: STUDresearch does not list reconstitution, diluent volumes, or syringe unit charts. People reconstitute many different ways and vial labels differ — that content creates more confusion than clarity. forum
- Storage (general talk only): Unopened research products are usually kept cool, dry, and away from light per the seller label. Anything after first use is product-specific — follow the label, not a universal forum SOP. forum
Watch for
- Injection site: Redness, tenderness, stinging, or local irritation after SC — most discussed practical nuisance. trialforum
- Mild systemic (trials / logs): Headache, fatigue, dizziness and GI upset appear in safety summaries and user notes. Short trials often described overall tolerability as acceptable. The T2D paper nevertheless reported serious adverse events in the active arm, with mixed causality assessments; their occurrence alone does not establish a drug-related safety pattern. trialforum
- Early sensory flare: Isolated anecdotes of temporarily worse tingling/pain at initiation before later improvement or stop. anecdote
- Source / sterility risk: Unregulated research-chem identity, concentration error, contamination, and endotoxin are repeatedly flagged in SFN self-experiment threads. forum
- Cost-driven lower dosing: Low-mg use to save money may differ from the 4 mg trial conditions, but it does not explain every null report: 1 mg was a formal study arm and a reviewed 4 mg/day account also reported no relief. This is not evidence to increase a dose or dismiss a failed experiment. forumtrial
- Interactions: No solid clinical interaction map with gabapentinoids, duloxetine, TCAs, opioids, or anticoagulants — absence of data ≠ proven safety. forum
- Regulatory / legal: Investigational / research status; orphan designation is not approval; possession or human use outside authorized trials may be restricted by jurisdiction. forum
- Not a substitute for workup: Forums stress confirming SFN (e.g., biopsy / QSART / clinical pattern) and ruling out treatable causes rather than peptide-first escalation. forum
- Long-term unknown: Published human exposure is dominated by weeks-long courses; multi-year daily SC safety, disease modification durability, and cancer/immune theoretical questions remain open. trialforum
- Hematologic design intent: Engineered as non-erythropoietic; trials are cited for lack of meaningful hematocrit rise vs EPO — still not a free pass on all systemic risk. trial
- Antibodies / immunogenicity: Sarcoidosis phase 2 protocols included testing for ARA 290 antibodies as a safety assessment — long-term immunogenicity outside trials is poorly mapped. trial
- Serious AEs: The T2D paper reported 4 serious events in the active arm, with 2 initially judged possibly related by investigators. A renal-worsening case also involved increased furosemide; a later cellulitis/fatal-MI case was judged unrelated by the safety committee. This is not zero-risk. Infection, hypersensitivity and unexpected events remain concerns with injectables; arm-specific primary details matter. trial
Evidence mix
Mixed trial + community tags
Full: every bullet (trial + community). Use Scan for a faster bro-science read.