MOTS-c is a mitochondrial-derived peptide — a short, 16-amino-acid sequence encoded within the mitochondrial 12S rRNA. Its metabolic effects have been characterised mainly in cell and animal models, where it acts on skeletal muscle through the enzyme AMPK. Human data are limited to association studies and measurements of the body's own levels. It is investigational, with human clinical testing described as ongoing and currently limited.
By Tessaro Pty Ltd, the maker of Pepti · Last reviewed
This page is a reference, not a protocol. It sets out what the published research actually reports, which parts come from animals or cells rather than people, what the absence of a published human half-life means for a record, and what a clean log holds. It contains no dose figures and no schedule; a section further down explains why that is deliberate.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Class / type | Mitochondrial-derived peptide; a 16-amino-acid sequence encoded within the mitochondrial 12S rRNA (Mohtashami et al., 2022) |
| Mechanism / role | In cell and animal models, acts on skeletal muscle and activates AMPK (Lee et al., 2015) — animal and cell-model evidence |
| Evidence base | Mechanism from cells and mice (Lee et al., 2015); human data limited to association studies, e.g. circulating levels lower in diabetes (Zhou et al., 2024, meta-analysis of human studies); no interventional human efficacy trials |
| Half-life | No reliable human half-life has been published. |
| Regulatory status | Investigational; human clinical testing described as ongoing and currently limited (Kong et al., 2023) |
MOTS-c is a mitochondrial-derived peptide: a short sequence of 16 amino acids encoded within the mitochondrial 12S rRNA region (Mohtashami et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2022). Unlike most compounds discussed on tracking sites, it is something the body already makes, present in tissues and in circulation, and its measured plasma level declines with age.
The mechanism that drew attention to it was worked out in cells and in mice, not in people. In the founding study, MOTS-c acted principally on skeletal muscle, where it activated the energy-sensing enzyme AMPK, and improved insulin sensitivity and reduced diet-induced obesity in mice (Lee et al., Cell Metabolism, 2015). Those are animal and cell-model results: a starting point for research, not evidence of an effect in people.
The human evidence is of a different and weaker kind: it is associative. A meta-analysis pooling human studies reported that circulating MOTS-c levels are significantly lower in people with diabetes than in those without (standardised mean difference −0.89; 95% confidence interval −1.12 to −0.65) (Zhou et al., Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome, 2024). An association like that proves nothing about cause: it does not show that lower MOTS-c brings on diabetes, nor that administering MOTS-c changes anything in a person.
No published human trial establishes that taking MOTS-c produces a clinical benefit; reviews describe its therapeutic potential as promising but still to be tested, with human clinical work characterised as ongoing and currently limited (Kong et al., Diabetes & Metabolism Journal, 2023). It is strong preclinical biology with thin human data, and a record should reflect that.
No reliable human half-life has been published. Human studies have measured the body's own MOTS-c, not the clearance of an administered dose (Mohtashami et al., 2022; Zhou et al., 2024), so there is no measured time for a dose to fall by half in human plasma. Until a human pharmacokinetic study reports one, any half-life quoted for MOTS-c is not from a published human source.
That absence has a practical consequence. You cannot anchor timing to a decay curve the way you can with a known half-life, so the useful structure is the dated history: what you logged, when, and what you noticed alongside it. Pepti's half-life decay calculator only charts a half-life you type in; with no published human value to enter for MOTS-c, it has nothing to plot here and invents nothing.
MOTS-c is a peptide, and peptides are not indefinitely stable: they degrade by both chemical and physical pathways, held off by formulation and storage conditions (Manning et al., Pharmaceutical Research, 2010). In practice the freeze-dried (lyophilized) powder is the durable form and a reconstituted solution the fragile one, because once the peptide is in water those decomposition routes are all available to it.
General handling follows, and none of it depends on any figure: keep material as its supplier directs, cold rather than warm, protected from light and from repeated freeze-thaw, and treat a reconstituted vial as having a limited usable life. For a record, capture the state the material was in — powder or solution, when it was mixed, and how it has been kept — so a later entry reads without guessing.
Pepti handles MOTS-c as it does any lyophilized peptide: arithmetic on figures you already have, never advice about what they should be.
Reconstitution, as variables. If your vial arrived as a powder, the concentration is the total amount stated on the vial divided by the volume of diluent you add; the volume you draw is the figure you already have divided by that concentration. Pepti's reconstitution calculator evaluates those relationships from your inputs and supplies no amount of its own.
Site rotation. If the material is injected, move through your injection sites in a fixed, numbered sequence so that no site is reused before it has recovered; the injection site rotation guide sets out the method, and Pepti tracks a 12-site sequence. Pepti remembers the last site and points to the next.
Half-life, from a value you enter. The half-life decay calculator charts how an amount falls over successive half-lives using a half-life you type in. It holds no built-in values, and since no reliable human half-life has been published for MOTS-c there is nothing to enter for it; the tool will not fabricate one.
MOTS-c is investigational. Human clinical testing is described as ongoing and currently limited (Kong et al., 2023), so there is no approved label and no authorised dosing outside study protocols. Any figure circulated as a “typical” amount is not drawn from an approved source, because none exists; it comes from forum consensus or vendor copy, dressed in the typography of evidence.
Pepti is a measurement and record-keeping tool. It converts a figure you already have into a draw volume and syringe units, tracks what is left in a vial, and remembers where the last injection went. It does not supply the figure, and it will not. The figure belongs to you and to whoever directs your use; the arithmetic is what we are for.
Because the human evidence is thin, your own dated observations are the only data actually about you. A record worth keeping holds the following.
MOTS-c is a mitochondrial-derived peptide, a short sequence of 16 amino acids encoded within the mitochondrial 12S rRNA. It is something the body already makes: it is present in tissues and in plasma, where measured levels decline with age. Its metabolic activity has been characterised mainly in cell and animal models, where it acts on skeletal muscle through the energy-sensing enzyme AMPK.
No. MOTS-c is investigational. The published literature describes preclinical therapeutic potential, with human clinical testing characterised as ongoing and currently limited, so there is no approved label and no authorised dosing for it. Most of what is known about its mechanism comes from cells and mice rather than from human trials.
No reliable human half-life has been published. Human research to date has measured the body's own MOTS-c levels rather than following the clearance of an administered amount, so there is no human pharmacokinetic half-life to cite. Any single figure presented as one is not drawn from a published human study.
Mostly not. The mechanistic findings come from cell and animal models. The human data are association studies: a meta-analysis of human studies found that circulating MOTS-c levels are lower in people with type 2 diabetes than in those without. An association of that kind does not show that taking MOTS-c changes any outcome in a person.
No. Pepti supplies no dose figures for MOTS-c or for anything else. It records the figure you already have from whoever directs your use, converts it into a draw volume and syringe units, tracks what is left in each vial, and keeps the site sequence. The arithmetic is ours; the figure is not.
This page is a reference on published evidence and record-keeping. It does not recommend MOTS-c or any other substance, and it provides no dose figure, no titration amount, and no schedule. MOTS-c is investigational and is not an approved therapy.
The Pepti peptide tracker for iPhone keeps the log, the site sequence, the vial count and your own observations in one place.
Not medical advice. Pepti is a record-keeping and measurement tool, not a medical device.
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