This is a working overview of alpha-MSH analogue, written for readers who want more than a one-paragraph summary but less than a textbook.
Reviewed 2025-09-26. Anything still debated is marked as such rather than presented as settled.
Melanotan-2 is a synthetic peptide designed as an analog of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, a signaling molecule produced in the pituitary and skin. Its structure is a linear chain of seven amino acids that folds into a ring through an internal lactam bridge joining two side chains. The compound is sometimes written as MT-II or MEL-2 in informal and commercial contexts. It belongs to the melanocortin peptide family, a group of short signaling molecules that share a conserved core sequence recognized by melanocortin receptors.
Two structural changes distinguish the synthetic peptide from the natural hormone. A norleucine residue replaces methionine at one position, and a D-configured phenylalanine replaces the natural L-form at another. Both substitutions slow enzymatic breakdown, which extends the molecule's persistence relative to the parent hormone. The lactam bridge further constrains the backbone into a stable conformation. These features are standard design strategies in peptide chemistry and are not unique to this compound; they appear across many research peptides built for improved stability.
The compound was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by academic researchers investigating melanocortin signaling and pigmentation. Early work explored whether synthetic analogs could reproduce effects of the natural hormone under controlled conditions. The molecule never advanced through the full regulatory pathway required for approval as a medicine. From the mid-2000s onward it appeared in unregulated consumer markets, often distributed through informal channels. That gap between research origins and commercial availability shapes how the compound is discussed today.
Solid peptide kept dry at minus twenty degrees Celsius, shielded from light and moisture, is generally considered stable for extended periods. Solutions are divided into single-use aliquots and held at minus twenty or minus eighty degrees Celsius, because repeated freeze-thaw cycles promote aggregation and loss of material to container surfaces. Hydrolysis of the backbone and oxidation of tryptophan are the principal degradation routes in aqueous solution, and both accelerate at ambient temperature. Hygroscopic uptake after a vial is opened can also shift the actual mass weighed, which affects any concentration calculated from it.
Routine characterisation relies on reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection near 214 nanometres, using a C18 column and a water-acetonitrile gradient containing trifluoroacetic acid. Electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry confirms the expected molecular mass and can reveal truncated or oxidised by-products that co-elute poorly. Sequence and stereochemistry require additional work, such as peptide mapping or amino acid analysis, because a chromatographic purity figure alone does not distinguish a diastereomer from the target peptide. Independent testing of research-grade material frequently shows measured content below the stated label, so a certificate of analysis is best read together with the method that produced it.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular class | Synthetic cyclic heptapeptide | Analog of alpha-MSH with an internal lactam bridge |
| Molecular weight | Approximately 1024 daltons | Free base value; salt forms differ |
| Appearance | White to off-white powder | Usually supplied as a lyophilized solid |
| Solubility | Freely soluble in water | Poorly soluble in nonpolar solvents |
| Typical storage | −20 °C, dry, protected from light | Repeated freeze-thaw cycles degrade peptides |
Early published reports described melanotan-2 as a tanning agent without sun protection, which means darkening is not the same as protection against ultraviolet radiation. Later studies explored the peptide in erectile dysfunction, hemorrhagic shock, and some skin conditions. No regulator in the United States or Europe has approved it for clinical use. Many products labelled melanotan-2 are sold without approval and their identity and purity are unverified. Its long-term safety in humans remains an open question.
Melanotan-2, also written Melanotan II, is a synthetic cyclic heptapeptide designed as an analogue of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Its sequence is Ac-Nle-cyclo[Asp-His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp-Lys]-NH2, and the lactam bridge between the aspartate and lysine side chains constrains the peptide into a ring. This structural change increases receptor affinity and metabolic stability relative to the native hormone. The compound was created in the 1980s as a research tool for studying pigmentation biology.
Melanocytes are the pigment-producing cells of the skin, and they carry melanocortin-1 receptors on their surface. When the receptor is activated, cyclic adenosine monophosphate rises inside the cell and raises the activity of enzymes such as tyrosinase, which increases melanin output. Melanotan-2 binds melanocortin-1 receptors in vitro and in animal models, and this binding is generally described as the basis for the tanning effect. Other receptors account for different effects: melanocortin-4 receptors contribute to appetite and erectile signalling, while melanocortin-3 and melanocortin-5 receptors contribute to energy balance and exocrine function.
Regulatory status varies by jurisdiction, and the substance is frequently described as unapproved for therapeutic use. Some authorities classify it alongside prescription-only medicines or controlled categories, while others address it through general consumer protection rules. Analytical surveys have reported mismatches between label claims and measured content in products sold online, although the scope of such testing is limited. Whether these discrepancies are widespread remains an open question. Discussion in the literature therefore tends to combine chemistry, supply-chain observation and policy analysis.
The material is commonly handled as a lyophilized powder in sealed vials. The solid dissolves readily in water and in polar organic solvents, producing a clear solution after reconstitution. Light, heat and repeated freeze-thaw cycles are the concerns most often raised in handling guidance, because peptide bonds and the constrained ring can degrade. Working solutions are generally prepared fresh, and material left in solution is treated as less stable than the dry form. These properties shape how laboratories store and aliquot reference material.
Melanotan-2 is frequently confused with afamelanotide, a linear analogue authorised in the European Union for erythropoietic protoporphyria. The two compounds differ in chain length, ring structure and receptor selectivity, so findings for one cannot be transferred directly to the other. Published controlled human data on melanotan-2 remain sparse, and much of what circulates online derives from small studies or unpublished reports. Questions about effect size, dose-response behaviour and long-term safety therefore remain unresolved.
Melanotan-2 is a synthetic cyclic heptapeptide designed as an analogue of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Its sequence incorporates a lactam bridge that constrains the peptide into a ring, which increases resistance to enzymatic breakdown relative to the natural hormone. Researchers at the University of Arizona synthesised the compound in the late 1980s and early 1990s while studying pigmentation pathways. It has never received marketing approval from any national medicines regulator. In the scientific literature it is usually described as a laboratory research reagent rather than a therapeutic product.
The peptide acts as a non-selective agonist at melanocortin receptors, showing affinity for MC1R, MC3R, MC4R and MC5R. Activation of MC1R on melanocytes drives the conversion of tyrosine into melanin and shifts production toward the darker eumelanin form. MC4R signalling in the central nervous system is linked to appetite and energy balance, which helps explain why reduced food intake appeared in early human studies. Effects on MC4R and on vascular tone also account for the erectile responses recorded as unexpected findings in those same trials.
== See also == Helenite – Artificial glass made from volcanic ash Hyaloclastite – Volcanic rock consisting of glass fragments Tachylite – Form of basaltic volcanic glass Libyan desert glass – Desert glass found in Libya and Egypt Mayor Island / Tūhua – New Zealand shield volcano – a source of Māori obsidian tools Stone tool Vitrophyre – Glassy volcanic rock Yaxchilan Lintel 24 – Ancient Maya limestone relief from Mexico – Ancient carving showing a Maya bloodlet ritual involving a rope with obsidian shards.
== Resilience of agrifood systems == The resilience of agrifood systems refers to the capacity over time of agrifood systems, in the face of any disruption, to sustainably ensure availability of and access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all, and sustain the livelihoods of agrifood systems' actors. According to FAO, truly resilient agrifood systems must have a robust capacity to prevent, anticipate, absorb, adapt and transform in the face of any disruption, with the functional goal of ensuring food security and nutrition for all and decent livelihoods and incomes for agrifood systems' actors. Such resilience addresses all dimensions of food security, but focuses specifically on stability of access and sustainability, which ensure food security in both the short and the long term.
A fluorescence microscopy-based assay reveals that the relative number of SeV virions bound to the receptor can be defined as 0.5 for GM3, as 1 for GD1a, and as 2 for Gq1b. The structures of some of these receptors are available for visualization through SugarBindDB – a resource of glycan-mediated host–pathogen interactions. Others are available through KEGG Glycan Database, PubChem compound database, and TOXNET database (toxicology data network) of US National Library of Medicine.
In the early 20th century, Freer, in 1902, and Killian, in 1904, pioneered the submucous resection septoplasty (SMR) procedure for correcting a deviated septum; they raised mucoperichondrial tissue flaps, and resected the cartilaginous and bony septum (including the vomer bone and the perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone), maintaining septal support with a 1.0-cm margin at the dorsum and a 1.0-cm margin at the caudad, for which innovations the technique became the foundational, standard septoplastic procedure. In 1929, Peer and Metzenbaum performed the first manipulation of the caudal septum, where it originates and projects from the forehead. In 1934, Aurel Rethi introduced the open rhinoplasty approach featuring an incision to the nasal septum to facilitate modifying the tip of the nose. In 1947, Maurice H. Cottle (1898–1981) endonasally resolved a septal deviation with a minimalist hemitransfixion incision, which conserved the septum; thus, he advocated for the practical primacy of the closed rhinoplasty approach. In 1957, A. Sercer advocated the "decortication of the nose" (Dekortication des Nase) technique which featured a columellar-incision open rhinoplasty that allowed greater access to the nasal cavity and to the nasal septum. The endonasal rhinoplasty was the usual approach to nose surgery until the 1970s, when Padovan presented his technical refinements, advocating the open rhinoplasty approach; he was seconded by Wilfred S. Goodman in the later 1970s, and by Jack P. Gunter in the 1990s.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== General === A 2020 study of data from 1999 to 2015 suggests that children living with married parents tended to have lower rates of early-life mortality than those living with unmarried or single parents and non-parents.
In reconstructive rhinoplasty, the defects and deformities that the plastic surgeon encounters, and must restore to normal function, form, and appearance include broken and displaced nasal bones; disrupted and displaced nasal cartilages; a collapsed bridge of the nose; congenital defect, trauma (blunt, penetrating, blast), autoimmune disorder, cancer, intranasal drug-abuse damages, and failed primary rhinoplasty outcomes. Rhinoplasty reduces bony humps, and re-aligns the nasal bones after they are cut (dissected, resected). When cartilage is disrupted, suturing for re-suspension (structural support), or the use of cartilage grafts to camouflage a depression allow the re-establishment of the normal nasal contour of the nose for the patient. When the bridge of the nose is collapsed, rib-cartilage, ear-cartilage, or cranial-bone grafts can be used to restore its anatomic integrity, and thus the aesthetic continuity of the nose. For augmenting the nasal dorsum, autologous cartilage and bone grafts are preferred to (artificial) nose prostheses, because of the reduced incidence of histologic rejection and medical complications.
== Ubiquitous function == This enzyme can catalyse the conversion of many alternative substrates, including alcohols such as retinol, which it converts to retinal. It also has an important role in the metabolism of nitric oxide, which is reactive and often found in tissue in the form of S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO), its adduct with glutathione (GSH). The enzyme is a class III alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) encoded by the ADH5 gene in humans and can act as a S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR). It is a primordial ADH that is ubiquitously expressed in plant and animals alike. GSNOR reduces GSNO to the unstable intermediate, S-hydroxylaminoglutathione, which then rearranges to form glutathione sulfinamide, or in the presence of excess GSH, forms glutathione disulfide and hydroxylamine.
== Geography == Sanlúcar de Barrameda is located on the Atlantic coast of the autonomous community of Andalusia, in the province of Cadiz, specifically on the left side of the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, which separates the provinces of Huelva and Seville. The municipality covers an area of 174.3 km2 with 6 km of beaches. The city is part of the tourist area known as the Costa de la Luz (Coast of the Light), about 44 km from the provincial capital of Cádiz. This includes the marshes of the Pinar de la Bonanza Algaida and the marshes of the Guadalquivir, part of the Doñana Natural Park. Sanlúcar de Barrameda borders the municipalities of Trebujena, Jerez de la Frontera, Rota, Puerto de Santa María, and Chipiona. Its topography is shown in the MTN50 sheet (scale 1:50,000) No. 1047 of the National Topographic Map.
Many other species worldwide within the family Muricidae, for example Plicopurpura pansa, from the tropical eastern Pacific, and Plicopurpura patula from the Caribbean zone of the western Atlantic, can also produce a similar substance (which turns into an enduring purple dye when exposed to sunlight) and this ability has sometimes also been historically exploited by local inhabitants in the areas where these snails occur. (Some other predatory gastropods, such as some wentletraps in the family Epitoniidae, seem to also produce a similar substance, although this has not been studied or exploited commercially.) The dog whelk Nucella lapillus, from the North Atlantic, can also be used to produce red-purple and violet dyes.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
There is no adequate level, recommended daily amount or tolerable upper limit for trans fats. This is because any incremental increase in trans fat intake increases the risk of coronary artery disease. Despite this concern, the NAS dietary recommendations have not included eliminating trans fat from the diet. This is because trans fat is naturally present in many animal foods in trace quantities, and thus its removal from ordinary diets might introduce undesirable side effects and nutritional imbalances. The NAS has, thus, "recommended that trans fatty acid consumption be as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet". Like the NAS, the WHO has tried to balance public health goals with a practical level of trans fat consumption, recommending in 2003 that trans fats be limited to less than 1% of overall energy intake.
=== 2 December === The commander of the SAF's 22nd Infantry Division, Major-General Abdelmajid al-Haj, and an unidentified brigadier general who commanded the SAF's 170th Artillery Brigade were killed in an RSF ambush while retreating from Babanusa towards Heglig. The SAF retook the town of Mabsouta in South Kordofan from the SPLM-N (al-Hilu), which had occupied the area since 2011.
Beginning in 1986, members of the University Health Center including Presbyterian University Hospital, Falk Clinic, the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Eye & Ear Hospital consolidated into the Medical and Health Care Division (MHCD) and led by Detre, became closely linked administratively, although Presbyterian University Hospital remained separate. In 1990, MHCD acquired neighboring Montefiore Hospital which merged with Presbyterian University Hospital to form the "University of Pittsburgh Medical Center" (shortened to UPMC), the first time that name was officially used. UPMC then formed a network of specialty and community hospitals in 1994 named the Tri-State Health System and established a for-profit health insurance division, UPMC Health Plan, which contracted with these hospitals. In 1996, UPMC acquired South Side, Aliquippa and Braddock hospitals. Meanwhile, UPMC began to merge with several of the already affiliated Tri-State hospitals including St. Margaret Memorial, Shadyside, and Passavant hospitals in 1997 and Magee-Womens Hospital in 1998. The acquisition and mergers consolidated the Tri-State Health System into a significant portion of the UPMC health system. Due to the immense growth of the medical center, as well as the university's concerns over financial risks associated with faculty practice in the face of national changes in health care reimbursement, the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC separated in 1998, launching UPMC as an independent nonprofit corporation supporting the university.
== Overview == Several copper(II)-peptide complexes occur naturally. In human plasma, the level of GHK-Cu is about 200 ng/ml at age 20. By the age of 60, the level drops to 80 ng/ml. In humans, GHK-Cu is proposed to promote wound healing, attraction of immune cells, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, stimulation of collagen and glycosaminoglycan synthesis in skin fibroblasts and promotion of blood vessels growth. Recent studies revealed its ability to modulate expression of a large number of human genes. Synthetic GHK-Cu is used in cosmetics as a reparative and anti-aging ingredient.
Some women with ptosis choose to undergo plastic surgery to make their breasts less ptotic. Plastic surgeons offer several procedures for lifting sagging breasts. Surgery to correct the size, contour, and elevation of sagging breasts is called mastopexy. Women can also choose breast implants, or may undergo both procedures. The breast-lift procedure surgically elevates the parenchymal tissue (breast mass), cuts and re-sizes the skin envelope, and transposes the nipple-areola complex higher upon the breast hemisphere. If sagging is present and the woman opts not to undergo mastopexy, implants are typically placed above the muscle, to fill out the breast skin and tissue. Submuscular placement can result in deformity. In these cases, the implant appears to be high on the chest, while the natural breast tissue hangs down over the implant.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
It is a synthetic seven-amino-acid peptide modeled on alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. It carries two non-natural substitutions and a cyclic bridge that increase its stability relative to the natural hormone. It circulates as a research chemical and is not an approved medicine.
Melanotan-1, also called afamelanotide, is a shorter linear analog with a different amino acid sequence and no lactam ring. It has been evaluated in formal clinical programs, while melanotan-2 has not. The two are distinct molecules and are not interchangeable.
No. Bremelanotide is a related but distinct cyclic peptide that reached approved status for one specific clinical indication. Melanotan-2 is a separate molecule with its own sequence and properties. Shared ancestry in the melanocortin family does not make them the same substance.
Purity is normally stated as an area percentage from high-performance liquid chromatography, for example ninety-five or ninety-eight percent. That figure describes the proportion of ultraviolet-absorbing material eluting as the main peak. It says nothing about water content, counterions, residual solvents or mass fraction of the peptide itself.