Goal

Neuroprotection

Compounds10

With human trials3

Limiting damage, not raising performance — a distinction the marketing usually collapses.

Neuroprotection is about limiting damage: ischaemia, peripheral neuropathy, neuroinflammation, mitochondrial failure inside neurons. It shares several compounds with the cognition page, but the weights are assigned for different reasons, and a compound can be strong here and weak there. Protecting a neuron under stress and improving the performance of a healthy one are different pharmacological problems.

ARA-290, cerebrolysin and P21 sit at 5. ARA-290 is unusual for this dataset: an EPO-derived peptide deliberately engineered not to stimulate erythropoiesis, taken through randomized placebo-controlled phase 2 trials in sarcoidosis-associated small fiber neuropathy and in type 2 diabetes, with mixed results and no approval anywhere. Cerebrolysin’s record is in stroke and dementia. P21 has no human record at all. Dihexa and Semax follow at 4, and SS-31 at 3 for mitochondrial protection specifically.

If you have an actual neurological diagnosis — neuropathy, post-stroke deficit, a movement disorder — this page is background reading for a conversation with a neurologist, not a substitute for one. For everyone else the practical filters are evidence tier and route: cerebrolysin is a supervised intramuscular course of several weeks, ARA-290 was studied as a daily subcutaneous injection over 28 days, and the two compounds with the most exciting mechanisms have the least human data behind them.

How to read this

Match — how squarely it aims here

The weight the dataset gives this compound for this goal, 1 to 5. It describes intent and mechanism, not benefit, and not direction: a 5 means the compound acts hard on the system in question.

5/5primary use

Evidence — whether anyone has shown it

Read from the compound’s evidence note and handling grade, for the compound as a whole rather than for this goal alone. A 5/5 match on animal data is a hypothesis, not a result.

Human trialsRandomized or controlled human trials exist, or the compound holds a regulatory approval somewhere. Trials existing is not the same as trials succeeding — some of these were negative.
Some human dataPublished human work exists but is small, early-phase, acute, or from a single group that nobody has replicated.
Animal data onlyThe case rests on rodent and cell work. Doses shown are extrapolated, not established in people.
Anecdotal onlyNo published trial record of any kind. Every number comes from vendor packaging and community practice.

10 compounds, strongest match first

Ranked for neuroprotection

Match 5/5 · Primary use

Match 4/5 · Strong secondary

Match 3/5 · Meaningful contributor

Match 2/5 · Marginal

Named stacks

Protocols built around this goal

Semax + SelankAlso targets4 weeksBeginnerTwo intranasal Russian-developed peptides run together as a short course: semax for focus, drive and BDNF signaling, selank as the anxiolytic counterweight that takes the edge off semax without sedation. Both are non-injectable, which is most of their appeal.Focus Nasal (Semax + Selank)Also targets4 weeksBeginnerSemax and selank in a single pre-mixed nasal spray, run as a short course: semax for focus and drive, selank as the anxiolytic counterweight that takes the edge off it. This is the same two compounds as the Semax + Selank entry in this library - the difference is the delivery format, not the pharmacology. It is here because the nasal route is the point: these two are formulated intranasally on purpose, and it is the one stack in this library that involves no needles at all.Advanced Mitochondrial (MOTS-c + SS-31)Also targets8 weeksAdvancedThe two most talked-about mitochondrial peptides run together: MOTS-c, a mitochondrially encoded peptide that activates AMPK, and SS-31 (elamipretide), a tetrapeptide that binds cardiolipin on the inner mitochondrial membrane. Two different points of attack on the same organelle, which is the whole rationale. Graded advanced because both are thin on human data and because nothing you can measure will tell you whether it worked.

Not sure this is your goal

Most people arrive wanting two or three of these at once, and the honest answer is usually to pick one and run it properly. The quiz weighs your goals against your experience, the routes you will tolerate and your contraindications, then shows its reasoning rather than just a name.

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Other goals

Educational information only, not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, changing, or stopping anything.