SHLP2

Where it comes from

Made in

Liver, kidney and muscle in the mouse; found in blood, where it falls with age

Sent out by

Unknown; plasma levels are lower in old mice than in young ones

Acts on

• Neurons
• Fat cells (differentiation)
• Islet and liver cells

What it does

• Protects cells from oxidative stress, cuts apoptosis and improves mitochondrial respiration, the closest of the six to humanin ¹
• Infused into the brain of rats it raised glucose uptake and suppressed the liver’s glucose output, so it acts as an insulin sensitiser from the brain outwards ¹
• The one SHLP with a human genetic finding: m.2158T>C puts an arginine where a lysine was (K4R), and that form is more stable and goes with less Parkinson’s disease ³

In medicine

• None. Blood SHLP2 is a research measurement: among 200 men having a prostate biopsy, a low level went with more cancer in white men but not in black men ²
• No routine assay and no medicine. The prostate finding rests on one case-control set and has not been repeated ²

Beyond the body’s own use

• Nothing is in trials. SHLP2 is the one of the six that has been given to living animals, by brain infusion and by injection, which is why most of what is known about the family comes from it ¹
• Its human evidence is the strongest of these peptides apart from humanin and SHMOOSE, and it is genetic rather than therapeutic ³
• It is not taken outside medicine, and no preparation of it is approved anywhere