60 terms · 7 categories

Every Peptide Term,
Defined Properly

Practitioner-sourced definitions for every term that matters in peptide research. Not Wikipedia surface-level, not forum-thread bro-science — real pharmacology, real sourcing context, real protocol-design depth. Every term links to a deep-dive page with examples, related terms, and practitioner context.

All 60 terms

Pharmacokinetics

10 terms

AUC (Area Under Curve)

also: area under the curve, total exposure

AUC (area under the curve) is your total exposure to a drug over time: the area under its blood concentration-time curve.

Bioavailability

also: F, systemic availability

Bioavailability (F) is the fraction of a dose that reaches your bloodstream as intact drug, compared with the same dose given intravenously.

Clearance Rate

also: CL, systemic clearance

Clearance (CL) is the volume of plasma your body fully clears of a drug per unit of time, usually given in liters per hour.

Cmax

also: peak concentration, maximum plasma concentration

Cmax is the highest concentration a drug reaches in your blood after a dose; Tmax is how long after the dose that peak occurs.

Cmin

also: trough concentration, minimum plasma concentration

Cmin is the lowest concentration of a drug in your blood during a dosing interval, usually reached just before the next dose (the trough).

Half-Life

also: t½, elimination half-life

Half-life (t½) is the time it takes for the concentration of a drug in your blood plasma to fall by half.

Steady State

also: steady-state concentration, Css

Steady state is the point in repeated dosing where the drug eliminated each interval equals the drug taken in, so levels stop climbing.

Subcutaneous Absorption Rate

also: SC absorption, SubQ uptake rate

Subcutaneous absorption rate is how fast a drug injected into the fatty layer under your skin moves into your bloodstream.

Tissue Residency

also: tissue persistence, depot effect

Tissue residency is an informal term for how long a drug stays in a tissue, or bound to its target, after blood levels fall. It is not a standard PK parameter.

Volume of Distribution

also: Vd, apparent volume of distribution

Volume of distribution (Vd) is the volume a drug would have to fill, at its plasma concentration, to account for all the drug in your body.

Mechanism

10 terms

Angiogenesis

also: neovascularization, new blood vessel formation

Angiogenesis is the growth of new blood vessels from existing ones, a normal part of development and wound repair that tumors can also exploit.

Cytokine Modulation

also: immune modulation, cytokine balancing

Cytokine modulation is changing the levels or effects of cytokines, the small signaling proteins that start, steer and end inflammation.

GHRH Analog

also: GHRH mimetic, growth hormone releasing hormone analog

A GHRH analog is a modified growth hormone-releasing hormone that activates the GHRH receptor on the pituitary to release the body's own growth hormone.

GIP Receptor

also: GIPR, gastric inhibitory polypeptide receptor

The GIP receptor is the receptor for GIP, a gut incretin hormone that boosts insulin after meals; tirzepatide activates it along with the GLP-1 receptor.

GLP-1 Receptor

also: GLP-1R, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor

The GLP-1 receptor is the G protein-coupled receptor that GLP-1 activates to boost insulin, lower glucagon, slow the stomach and reduce appetite.

Growth Hormone Secretagogue

also: GHS, GH secretagogue

A growth hormone secretagogue (GHS) is a compound that makes the pituitary release its own growth hormone, usually by activating the ghrelin receptor.

Mitochondrial Biogenesis

also: mito biogenesis

Mitochondrial biogenesis is the process by which cells build new mitochondria, increasing their capacity to produce energy through respiration.

Receptor Agonist

also: agonist

A receptor agonist is a molecule that binds a receptor and switches it on, producing a response the way the body's own signaling molecule does.

Receptor Antagonist

also: antagonist, receptor blocker

A receptor antagonist is a molecule that binds a receptor without activating it, blocking the body's own signal or a drug from switching it on.

Telomerase Activation

also: TA, telomere lengthening

Telomerase activation means switching on telomerase, the enzyme that adds DNA to chromosome ends (telomeres), offsetting their shortening as cells divide.

Vendor & Sourcing

8 terms

Batch Variance

also: lot-to-lot variability, batch consistency

Batch variance is the difference in purity, content or impurity profile between separate production lots of the same product.

COA (Certificate of Analysis)

also: certificate of analysis, lab report

A certificate of analysis (COA) is a lab report showing test results, such as purity and identity, for one specific production batch of a product.

Cold Chain

also: temperature-controlled shipping, refrigerated logistics

Cold chain is the unbroken control of temperature for a temperature-sensitive product, from manufacture through shipping and storage to use.

HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)

also: HPLC, liquid chromatography

HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) is a lab method that separates a sample into its components so the main compound's purity can be measured.

Lyophilization

also: freeze-drying, lyo

Lyophilization (freeze-drying) removes water from a frozen product under vacuum, leaving a dry powder or cake that is more stable than a solution.

Mass Spectrometry

also: MS, mass spec

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a lab method that measures the mass of molecules, used to confirm a peptide is the molecule it is supposed to be.

Research-Use-Only (RUO)

also: RUO, for research use only

Research Use Only (RUO) is a label saying a product is sold for laboratory research, not for diagnosing, treating or use in people.

Vendor Trust Score

also: vendor rating, vendor reliability score

DoseCraft's vendor trust score is an editorial rating of a peptide seller's documentation, testing claims, reputation and business details, not a lab result.

Injection & Reconstitution

10 terms

BAC Water

also: bacteriostatic water, bacteriostatic water for injection

Bacteriostatic water (BAC water) is sterile water for injection with 0.9% benzyl alcohol added as a preservative, used to dissolve drugs for injection.

Concentration (mcg/mL)

also: concentration, peptide concentration

Concentration (mcg/mL) is how many micrograms of peptide are in each milliliter of solution; it converts a dose by weight into a volume to draw.

Drawing Dose

also: drawing up, loading syringe

Drawing a dose means pulling a measured volume of solution from a vial into a syringe, removing air bubbles, and setting it to the exact mark.

Injection Site Rotation

also: site rotation, rotating sites

Injection site rotation means moving each injection to a different spot so the same patch of tissue is not injected repeatedly.

Insulin Syringe

also: U-100 syringe, insulin pin

An insulin syringe is a small, fine-needle syringe marked in insulin units; on the common U-100 type, 100 units equals 1 mL.

Intramuscular (IM) Injection

also: IM, intramuscular injection

An intramuscular (IM) injection delivers a drug into a muscle, using a longer needle than a subcutaneous injection, at sites such as the deltoid.

Reconstitution

also: recon, mixing

Reconstitution is dissolving a freeze-dried (lyophilized) powder in a measured volume of liquid to make a solution of known concentration for injection.

Subcutaneous (SubQ) Injection

also: SubQ, SC injection

A subcutaneous (SubQ) injection delivers a drug into the fat layer between the skin and the muscle, where it is absorbed gradually.

Units (Insulin Syringe)

also: IU, syringe units

Units on an insulin syringe are volume markings; on a U-100 syringe, 1 unit = 0.01 mL and 100 units = 1 mL. They are not a dose by themselves.

Vial Shelf Life

also: shelf life, vial expiration

Vial shelf life ends at the earlier of the original expiration date and the applicable limit after opening or mixing.

Evidence & Research

8 terms

Anecdotal Report

also: bro-science, forum report

An anecdotal report is one person's account of what happened after using something, collected without a control group or a set measurement plan.

Clinical Trial

also: clinical study, human trial

A clinical trial is a planned study that tests a drug or other intervention in people under a written protocol, usually run in phases 1 through 4.

Mechanistic Study

also: mechanism-of-action study, pathway study

A mechanistic study investigates how a compound acts, such as which receptors, pathways or genes it affects, rather than whether it improves health outcomes.

N=1 Study

also: N-of-1, single-subject study

An N=1 study is a structured experiment in a single person; the rigorous form, an N-of-1 trial, alternates treatment and control periods in random order.

Practitioner Corpus

also: clinician protocols, expert protocol corpus

The practitioner corpus is the practitioner and clinic protocol material in DoseCraft's sources; claims from it are labeled Expert, apart from trial evidence.

Preclinical Study

also: animal study, in vivo / in vitro research

A preclinical study tests a compound in cells or tissue (in vitro) or in living animals (in vivo), before or instead of testing it in people.

RCT (Randomized Controlled Trial)

also: RCT, randomized controlled trial

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) assigns people by chance to a treatment or comparison group, so outcome differences can be credited to the treatment.

Three-Lane Evidence System

also: three-lane framework, evidence tiers

The three-lane evidence system is DoseCraft's method of labeling each claim by the strength of evidence behind it: Clinical, Expert or Experimental.

Stacking & Cycling

8 terms

Cycle

also: protocol cycle, run

A cycle is a planned period of taking a compound followed by a planned break, often repeated over time.

Loading Phase

also: loading dose, saturation phase

A loading phase is a period of larger initial dosing meant to reach a target drug level quickly, before switching to a smaller maintenance dose.

Maintenance Dose

also: maintenance, steady-state dose

A maintenance dose is the regular ongoing dose that keeps a drug's level and effect steady once any titration or loading is complete.

Off-Cycle

also: washout period, rest phase

Off-cycle is the planned break in a cycle when you stop taking a compound, used to let the drug clear and to see which effects last.

On-Cycle

also: during cycle, active cycle

On-cycle is the phase of a cycle when you are actively taking a compound, as opposed to the planned break (off-cycle).

Receptor Desensitization

also: tachyphylaxis, receptor downregulation

Receptor desensitization is the drop in a cell's response to a drug or hormone after repeated or continuous stimulation of its receptor.

Stack

also: protocol stack, peptide stack

A stack is two or more compounds used during the same period, usually chosen because they are thought to act through different mechanisms on the same goal.

Titration

also: dose escalation, dose ramping

Titration is starting a drug at a low dose and raising it in planned steps, so your body can adjust and side effects stay manageable.

Compound Class

6 terms

GLP-1 Agonist

also: GLP-1 receptor agonist, GLP-1RA

A GLP-1 agonist is a drug that activates the receptor for glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a gut hormone, and is used to lower blood glucose and body weight.

Healing Peptide

also: repair peptide, tissue repair peptide

'Healing peptide' is an informal label for peptides promoted for tissue repair, such as BPC-157 and TB-500; their evidence comes mostly from animal studies.

Longevity Peptide

also: anti-aging peptide, healthspan peptide

'Longevity peptide' is an informal label for peptides promoted to slow aging, such as Epitalon, MOTS-c and SS-31; evidence is mostly from cells and animals.

Nootropic Peptide

also: cognitive peptide, brain peptide

'Nootropic peptide' is an informal label for peptides promoted for memory, focus, or mood, such as Semax and Selank; human evidence is small.

Peptide

also: oligopeptide, short peptide

A peptide is a short chain of amino acids joined by peptide bonds. US regulators treat chains of 40 or fewer amino acids as peptides.

Polypeptide

also: long peptide, oligopeptide chain

A polypeptide is a longer, unbranched chain of amino acids joined by peptide bonds; where 'peptide' ends and 'polypeptide' begins is a convention.

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