Name: MOTS-c
Brand: PeptidesDirect
SKU: PD-MOTSC-40MG
Availability: InStock

Question 1

What is MOTS-c?

Accepted Answer

MOTS-c is a mitochondria-derived peptide encoded within the 12S rRNA gene of mitochondrial DNA. It consists of 16 amino acids and is studied for its role in metabolic regulation, exercise physiology, and cellular energy homeostasis.

Question 2

How should I store MOTS-c?

Accepted Answer

Store lyophilized MOTS-c at -20°C for long-term storage or at 2-8°C for short-term use. After reconstitution, keep refrigerated at 2-8°C and use within 30 days.

Question 3

What purity is your MOTS-c?

Accepted Answer

Every batch of MOTS-c ships with a certificate of analysis from Janoshik Analytical, an independent third-party laboratory, at a minimum purity of 98%. We do not run a lab ourselves: the manufacturer commissions this test, and we pass the report on unchanged, with an online verification link on the product page. This batch also carries additional independent tests from BT Labs, Freedom Diagnostics and Kovera Labs, each commissioned outside the manufacturer.

Question 4

How do I reconstitute MOTS-c?

Accepted Answer

Add bacteriostatic water slowly along the inside wall of the vial. Gently swirl to dissolve - do not shake. Use 1-2 mL of bacteriostatic water per vial. The solution should be clear before use.

Question 5

How does MOTS-c's proposed mechanism, activating the cellular energy sensor AMPK, actually work according to the published research?

Accepted Answer

In the original 2015 study, MOTS-c entered skeletal muscle cells, inhibited the folate cycle and de novo purine biosynthesis, and that metabolic stress activated AMPK, the cell's main energy sensor (PMID 25738459). Downstream, AMPK activation was linked to improved insulin-stimulated glucose uptake through the Akt pathway in muscle tissue, which the authors propose as the basis for the metabolic effects seen in the mouse experiments. This mechanism has so far been demonstrated in mouse and cultured muscle cell models, not confirmed as the operating mechanism in humans.

Question 6

What has MOTS-c actually been studied for (condition, model, species)?

Accepted Answer

Published research on MOTS-c falls into two main groups: metabolic studies in mice showing improved glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity and protection against diet-induced obesity (PMID 25738459, PMID 31293078), and exercise-capacity studies in mice and rats showing increased running time, distance and sprint speed (PMID 33473109, PMID 35808870). A separate line of human research measures MOTS-c as a naturally circulating peptide in blood and muscle rather than as an administered compound, comparing levels between athletes and sedentary controls (PMID 39077591). There is no completed human interventional trial of administered MOTS-c; a Phase 2a trial in prediabetes and overweight or obesity began recruiting in February 2026 (NCT07505745).

Question 7

What dose did the MOTS-c studies use (species, route, amount per kg, frequency, duration), and is there a published human dosing protocol?

Accepted Answer

In the foundational study, mice received MOTS-c intraperitoneally at 5 mg/kg/day for 7 days to test insulin sensitivity, and at a lower 0.5 mg/kg/day dose for 8 weeks in the diet-induced-obesity arm (PMID 25738459). Other mouse and rat studies used doses up to 15 mg/kg, given once daily for 10 days to 2 weeks, twice daily for 3 consecutive days, or as a single dose 10 minutes before an exercise test (PMID 31293078, PMID 33473109, PMID 35808870). Those are the amounts, species, routes and schedules the published studies actually administered. No human dosing protocol for MOTS-c has been published: the only interventional human trial, a Phase 2a study in prediabetes and overweight or obesity, began recruiting in February 2026 and has not disclosed a specific dose publicly (NCT07505745).

Question 8

What did the MOTS-c studies observe as the outcome, and how quickly did the effect appear?

Accepted Answer

Effects appeared fast in some arms: 3 days of twice-daily dosing lowered blood glucose and shifted plasma lipid metabolites in high-fat-diet mice (PMID 31293078), and a single dose given 10 minutes before a treadmill test increased running time by about 12% and distance by about 15% in untrained mice (PMID 35808870). Longer dosing produced larger effects: 8 weeks of daily dosing reduced diet-induced weight gain and insulin resistance (PMID 25738459), 10 days of daily dosing let 100% of young, high-fat-diet mice reach top sprint speed versus 16.6% of mice on a lower dose or vehicle control, and 2 weeks of daily dosing let old mice run roughly twice as long and 2.16 times farther than controls (PMID 33473109). All of these results are from mice and rats; no published human trial has yet reported an outcome from administered MOTS-c.

Question 9

What side effects or adverse events were reported in the MOTS-c studies, with rates and citations where available?

Accepted Answer

The four core dosing studies (PMID 25738459, PMID 31293078, PMID 33473109, PMID 35808870) do not report on adverse events at all: they were designed to measure metabolic and exercise outcomes such as glucose, insulin and running performance, not safety or tolerability, and none of them contains a dedicated toxicology or adverse-event assessment. These are rodent studies at intraperitoneal doses up to 15 mg/kg, without the vital-sign, ECG or laboratory safety monitoring a human trial would use. The only study designed to track adverse events in people, NCT07505745 (Phase 2a, started recruiting February 2026), includes adverse-event, vital-sign, ECG and laboratory safety monitoring through a 16-week follow-up, but has not yet reported results.

Question 10

What is not known about MOTS-c's safety, i.e. what is the honest evidence gap?

Accepted Answer

There is no published human safety or toxicology data for administered MOTS-c: every dosing study so far is in mice or rats, and the first interventional human trial (NCT07505745, Phase 2a, prediabetes and overweight or obesity) only began recruiting in February 2026 and will not report safety results until it completes. That means there is no human data yet on dose-limiting side effects, long-term use, drug interactions, or use in pregnancy, and no medical regulator has ever reviewed MOTS-c for safety. MOTS-c is also on the WADA Prohibited List under section S4.4.1 (AMPK activators), prohibited at all times in sport since the 2025 list; that is a doping-control classification, not a safety finding, but it shows the compound has drawn regulatory-style attention from one body while remaining unreviewed by any medical one.

Question 11

Does MOTS-c cause cancer, based on the published research?

Accepted Answer

No published study reports that MOTS-c administration causes cancer. The opposite direction shows up repeatedly in the literature: in mice, injected MOTS-c reduced cancer-induced bone pain and bone destruction through AMPK activation (PMID 38716540), and a 2024 study combining ovarian-cancer patient tissue, cell lines and mouse xenografts found MOTS-c levels were lower in tumor tissue and serum from ovarian-cancer patients, and that adding MOTS-c back suppressed tumor cell growth in the cell and mouse models (PMID 39321430). These are early, preclinical or observational findings in specific cancer models, not evidence that MOTS-c prevents or treats cancer in people. No study has looked for a tumor-promoting effect from MOTS-c and found one.

Question 12

Is MOTS-c approved by the FDA, EMA, or any other regulator?

Accepted Answer

No. MOTS-c has no FDA, EMA or other regulatory approval as a drug anywhere, and it is not marketed as a treatment for any condition. It is currently in early human testing: a Phase 2a trial in prediabetes and overweight or obesity (NCT07505745, sponsor Hudson Biotech) began recruiting in February 2026, but a Phase 2a start is years away from any regulatory decision. We sell MOTS-c strictly as a research compound, not as a medicine.

Question 13

Is MOTS-c banned by WADA or other anti-doping bodies?

Accepted Answer

Yes. MOTS-c is named explicitly on the WADA Prohibited List under section S4.4.1 (AMPK activators, part of S4 Hormone and Metabolic Modulators), prohibited at all times in sport, a status it has held since the 2025 list and still carries on the 2026 list. This is a sport anti-doping classification, unrelated to any EU or national medicines regulation. Athletes subject to WADA testing should treat any AMPK-activator peptide, including MOTS-c, as prohibited regardless of how it is obtained.

Question 14

Is there a human clinical trial underway for MOTS-c, and what does it involve?

Accepted Answer

Yes. NCT07505745 is a Phase 2a, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial sponsored by Hudson Biotech, testing 12 weeks of once-daily subcutaneous MOTS-c against placebo in adults with prediabetes and overweight or obesity, followed by a 4-week safety follow-up. It started recruiting on February 2, 2026, and measures insulin sensitivity by a 75g oral glucose tolerance test alongside HbA1c, fasting glucose, lipids, body weight and waist circumference. The specific milligram dose being tested has not been made public in the trial registry, and no results have been reported yet.

Question 15

Does exercise reliably raise MOTS-c levels in humans, based on the actual studies?

Accepted Answer

The human evidence is mixed, not a simple yes. One paper found that in a small cohort of 10 healthy young men, a single bout of cycling exercise raised MOTS-c protein in skeletal muscle by about 11.9-fold on Western blot, and circulating MOTS-c by 1.5- to 1.6-fold on ELISA, measured from that same exercise session (PMID 33473109). But a separate cross-sectional study of 75 professional endurance athletes found their resting serum MOTS-c was significantly lower than in 30 sedentary, age- and BMI-matched controls (p=0.0001), the opposite of what a simple exercise-raises-MOTS-c model would predict (PMID 39077591). The honest summary: a single exercise session appears to transiently raise MOTS-c in a small sample, but chronically trained athletes do not show higher resting levels, and the relationship is correlational, not yet mechanistically explained.

Question 16

How does MOTS-c compare to Humanin, another mitochondrial-derived peptide it is often studied alongside?

Accepted Answer

Humanin and MOTS-c are both mitochondrial-derived peptides encoded in mitochondrial DNA, but they come from different genes (Humanin from the 16S rRNA region, MOTS-c from the 12S rRNA region) and are studied for different things: MOTS-c mainly for AMPK-driven metabolic and exercise effects, Humanin mainly for cell-survival and neuroprotective signaling. In the one study that measured both in the same people, professional endurance athletes had significantly lower serum MOTS-c but significantly higher serum Humanin than sedentary controls, showing the two peptides do not simply move together with exercise (PMID 39077591). Like MOTS-c, Humanin has no published human dosing protocol as an administered compound.

Question 17

What does our own third-party CoA show for MOTS-c, and how were these tests commissioned?

Accepted Answer

Our current MOTS-c batches carry five certificates of analysis: two commissioned by the manufacturer through Janoshik (a Pink 10mg batch at 99.11% purity, and a Yellow 40mg batch at 99.13% purity, identity- and purity-tested), and three submitted by the community and run at independent labs outside our control or the manufacturer's (BT Labs on a Pink 10mg batch at 99.60% purity and 13.6mg content, Freedom Diagnostics on a Red-cap 40mg batch at 99.19% purity and 42.03mg content with an endotoxin test also run, and Kovera Labs on a Red-cap 40mg batch at 99.86% purity and 41.19mg content). None of these are tests we ran ourselves, and we did not commission the Janoshik reports either, the manufacturer did. Every report links to its own lab's online verification tool so a specific batch can be checked directly against the issuing lab, not just against our published summary.

Question 18

Is the exogenous MOTS-c peptide used in research the same molecule as the MOTS-c that occurs naturally and rises with exercise in the body?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is the same 16-amino-acid sequence either way: MOTS-c is naturally encoded within the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene and released endogenously, and the synthetic peptide used in laboratory dosing studies is manufactured to match that same sequence. The distinction that matters is administration, not identity: the mouse and rat studies (PMID 25738459, PMID 31293078, PMID 33473109, PMID 35808870) all injected synthetic MOTS-c intraperitoneally at defined doses, while the human studies (PMID 33473109 exercise arm, PMID 39077591) only measured the naturally occurring peptide already present in the body, without administering any. That is why there is preclinical dosing data but no completed human dosing trial: humans have so far been observed, not dosed, with one Phase 2a trial (NCT07505745) now underway to change that.

Question 19

How does MOTS-c compare to SS-31 (elamipretide), since both are marketed as mitochondrial peptides?

Accepted Answer

MOTS-c and SS-31 (elamipretide) both get called 'mitochondrial peptides,' but they act on different levels of mitochondrial biology and have never been tested together or against each other. MOTS-c is a naturally occurring 16-amino-acid peptide encoded in mitochondrial DNA that works largely inside skeletal muscle cells, inhibiting the folate-purine cycle and activating the cellular energy sensor AMPK; it has been studied in mice for insulin sensitivity, diet-induced obesity and exercise capacity (PMID 25738459, PMID 33473109), with human data so far limited to observing the body's own MOTS-c levels rather than administering the peptide. SS-31 is a synthetic tetrapeptide that binds directly to cardiolipin, a phospholipid in the inner mitochondrial membrane, and has been tested in human heart-failure and mitochondrial-myopathy trials, leading to a narrow 2025 FDA approval for Barth syndrome. Different molecule, different binding site, different endpoints: see our SS-31 listing for that peptide's own evidence base.

Question 20

How much bacteriostatic water should be used to reconstitute MOTS-c, and how long does the reconstituted vial stay stable (fridge vs freezer, light exposure)?

Accepted Answer

This is lab-reagent handling, not a personal dose. The water volume you add sets the concentration: less water gives a more concentrated stock solution, more water a more dilute one. Use our reconstitution calculator to work out mg/mL for your vial size. Once mixed, treat MOTS-c as a research reagent with a limited shelf life: store the reconstituted solution refrigerated at 2-8C, protected from light, and avoid freezing it or cycling it between fridge and freezer, since ice crystals damage peptide structure. Discard the solution if it turns cloudy or discolored.

Question 21

Has MOTS-c been studied together with Retatrutide or other GLP-1-family peptides, or is that pairing just a research-market trend?

Accepted Answer

No published study has dosed MOTS-c together with Retatrutide or any other GLP-1-family peptide, in animals or in humans. Each works through a separate mechanism: MOTS-c through AMPK activation in skeletal muscle, GLP-1-family peptides through GIP/GLP-1/glucagon receptor agonism, and GLP-1-class drugs are EU-regulated prescription medicines in their approved form. Any pairing seen in the research-peptide market is an extrapolation from two separately studied compounds, not evidence from a combination trial. We don't provide a combined protocol or dosing schedule for either substance.

Question 22

Does MOTS-c cause weight loss or fat loss the way GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide do, or is the mechanism and evidence base completely different?

Accepted Answer

The mechanisms are different, and so is the evidence base. Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist backed by large Phase 3 human trials showing double-digit body-weight loss, with regulatory approval as a prescription medicine. MOTS-c works by activating AMPK, the cell's energy sensor, and its metabolic data comes from diet-induced-obesity mouse studies showing reduced weight gain and improved insulin sensitivity (PMID 25738459), plus one Phase 2a human trial in prediabetes and overweight or obesity that only began recruiting in February 2026 and hasn't reported results. MOTS-c has not been shown to cause weight loss in humans.

Question 23

Do the fatigue or 'brain fog' effects some users report after MOTS-c (described online as the 'MOTS-c hangover') have any basis in how the peptide actually works?

Accepted Answer

The published mouse studies describe MOTS-c's mechanism as inhibiting the folate-purine cycle in skeletal muscle, part of how it activates AMPK (PMID 25738459), a metabolic pathway, not one tested for fatigue or cognitive effects. No published study, in mice or in humans, has measured fatigue, tiredness, or 'brain fog' as an outcome after MOTS-c administration. The 'MOTS-c hangover' described online is an anecdotal, informal observation, not a documented finding in the literature. We can't confirm or rule out a connection to the studied mechanism: this simply hasn't been researched.

Question 24

Is there actual published evidence that MOTS-c extends lifespan or slows aging in humans, or is that based only on animal and observational data?

Accepted Answer

No. The published mouse studies measured late-life physical performance, not lifespan: in old mice, intermittent MOTS-c dosing improved measures of physical capacity, and treated old mice ran roughly twice as long and about 2.16 times farther than controls (PMID 33473109). No study, in mice or any other species, has measured whether MOTS-c extends lifespan, and there is no human aging-outcome data at all beyond the cross-sectional athlete comparison already covered elsewhere on this page. 'Longevity peptide' marketing claims go beyond what any published study has shown.

MOTS-c

What is MOTS-c

How it works

Often studied alongside

Documentation

Storage and stability

Frequently Asked Questions

Technical data sheet

Frequently bought together

SS-31

NAD+

Epitalon

Bacteriostatic Water

Lab Measuring Syringe + Prep Wipes Set (1 mL 31G)

Graduated Measuring Syringe 1 mL 31G x 6 mm

Alcohol Prep Pads 30 x 65 mm

Peptide Storage Box (10 Compartments)

Peptide Vial Case 30 Slots