SHLP6

Where it comes from

Made in

Read off the mitochondrial sequence in 2016, then found by antibody in mouse liver and kidney

Sent out by

Unknown; no study has reported it in blood

Acts on

• Cells, including cancer cells

What it does

• Promotes apoptosis: in both cell lines tested it increased cell death, the opposite of SHLP2 and SHLP3 from the same stretch of the same gene ¹
• The shortest of the six at 20 residues, and the only one whose effect runs against humanin’s ¹
• Nothing explains the reversal. None of the six has a known receptor, so there is the observation and no mechanism ²

In medicine

• None. No blood measurement in people has been reported and no disease has been linked to it
• One of the two cell lines in which it killed cells was a prostate cancer line, and that single result is the whole basis for calling it cancer-relevant ¹

Beyond the body’s own use

• Nothing is in trials. SHLP6 has not been given to an animal, so the apoptosis it causes has only ever been seen in a dish ¹
• Whether an apoptosis-promoting peptide in the mitochondrial genome makes sense beside five siblings and humanin that keep cells alive is open: one paper found the effect in 2016 and nobody has repeated it ²