SkQ1 dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
SkQ1 is an antioxidant aimed at mitochondria, the cell's power plants. In Russia it is registered as an eye drop for dry eye. The claims that it extends life come from one research group's rodent work. Swallowing it has no human data.
Evidence grade for SkQ1: Preliminary. The rule: studied in people, but no published study has had people take it. The sum on this page: 1 human study where nobody was given it. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 0
- Human studies
- 0
- Found nothing
- 0
Dose
No human dose established
No published study on this page has given this compound to people and reported a result.
1 human study where nobody was given it
4 effects reported, 3 unwanted, 1 wanted, by people using it, not a trial
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
SkQ1 is an antioxidant built to get inside mitochondria, the cell's power plants. In Russia it is sold as an eye drop for dry eye. Online it is sold to swallow for a longer life. The swallowed version has no human data.
What people take it for
- Dry eyes, as drops.
- Living longer, as a pill.
What studies in people showed
The only human evidence is for eye drops. In trials, the drops beat plain drops for dry eye symptoms. For a longer life, the only data come from rats and mice, from the group that created it. No one else has repeated that. Nobody has tested swallowing it in people.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- Some say the eye drops soothe tired, screen-strained eyes for a few minutes.
The bad
- Long-term users report no effect, including one who used it for a year with no change in vision.
- Some current users say openly they are not sure whether it harms as well as helps.
- Nobody reports anything that backs up the whole-body anti-ageing claim.
Where these come from: Forum patterns from LongeCity, as summed up on this page. Those are self-reports. The trial result is the eye drop study on this page.
My bottom line
For dry eyes in Russia, fine. As a longevity pill, it has no human support. I would not swallow it for that.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
What people using it report
Real people telling you what happened to them. Nobody checked it, and the people who post are not a fair sample, so it cannot prove anything works. It is still the best guide on this page to what people actually do with SkQ1, what they expect, and what goes wrong. The full account, including the negative reports, is below.
Nothing indexed yet
The 2 citations on this page do not report a result for any of the 36 goals indexed here. Most of what sits here is something else: a listing of a planned study, a study of how the body handles the drug, a safety report or a government record. None of those tests whether it works.
Show full evidence
What is SkQ1?
SkQ1 is an antioxidant aimed at mitochondria, the cell's power plants. In Russia it is registered as an eye drop for dry eye. The claims that it extends life come from one research group's rodent work. Swallowing it has no human data.
SkQ1 joins an antioxidant to a carrier that pulls it inside mitochondria. There it protects a key fat in the inner wall from damage. Two trials support the eye drop for dry eye symptoms. The Skulachev group reported longer lives in rodents. No other lab has repeated that, and the swallowed longevity products sold in the West have no human studies.
How does SkQ1 work?
Its carrier piles it up inside mitochondria, where it mops up damaging molecules at the inner wall.
What do people who took SkQ1 report?
This is what real people say happened to them, good and bad. Nobody measured it. A report cannot tell a real effect from the lift people get just from expecting it to work, from a diet or training change made at the same time, or from what was really in the vial. We still put it near the top. It is the next best thing to a study in people: what happens when real people use it, including what goes wrong.
- Almost all use described is the eye drop preparation approved and sold in Russia for dry eye, at a very dilute concentration, rather than anything meant for the whole body. People obtain it through Russian pharmacies or importers, and the practical discussion is largely about how to get hold of it.
- Where people report something, it is short-term comfort in eyes tired from screen work, described as a sensation passing within a few minutes of instilling the drops rather than as anything cumulative.
- Reports of no effect are explicit and come from long users, including an account of a year of use with no change in vision.
- Uncertainty about whether it is doing harm as well as good appears in these threads from people currently using it, which is unusual and is stated rather than implied.
- The gap between what people are actually using it for and what the forum interest in it is about, which is the claim from animal work that it protects the power plants of cells all over the body, is wide and is not bridged by anything anyone reports.
Sources: Supplements and product discussion threads on LongeCity, reached through site-restricted search extracts of the threads because the site itself would not load from this environment, September 2026. Nothing above is attributed to any specific post and no post is reproduced.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
1study in people cited, but none says how many people took part
number of people not stated
We do not draw a total, because none of the studies in people on this page gives one. Read the sources below for what each study measured.
We read the number of people from the source lines on this page. Where a line gives no number, we count nothing for it. We do not guess.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
1 of 2 sources here is a study in people. The rest is not.
- Study in people · done in people150%
- Animal study · done in animals150%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
Sources here come from just two years, 2011 and 2016.
Too few different years on this page to draw a timeline. The newest source on file is from 2016, more than five years ago. Research on it may have gone quiet.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Small molecule
- Molecule weight
- 617.6 Da
- Half-life
- Stated in words, not a numbersee the exact wording below
- Chain length
- None on file
No amino acid sequence is on file for SkQ1, which is expected: a small molecule is not built from amino acids.
The studies we cite
- Study in people2016SkQ1 eye drops for dry eye: randomized trial
Eye drops beat plain drops for dry eye. That is the human evidence for this compound, and it is about the surface of the eye. It is not evidence for swallowing it, and it says nothing about ageing.
Symptom improvement versus vehicle.
- Animal study2011Effects of the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant SkQ1 on lifespan of rodents
In rats and mice. The group that created it reported longer lives.
Lifespan extension reported in rodents by the originating group.
Common questions
Has SkQ1 been tested in people?
Not in a completed trial cited here. 1 human study where nobody was given it. SkQ1 is an antioxidant aimed at mitochondria, the cell's power plants. In Russia it is registered as an eye drop for dry eye. The claims that it extends life come from one research group's rodent work. Swallowing it has no human data.
What is the SkQ1 dosage?
No human dose established. No published study on this page has given this compound to people and reported a result. 1 human study where nobody was given it
Is SkQ1 FDA-approved?
Not FDA-approved; registered in Russia as Visomitin eye drops
SkQ1 or MitoQ?
Both are antioxidants aimed at mitochondria. MitoQ has more human studies in the West, mostly on blood vessel function. SkQ1's human data are only for eye drops.
Latest reading on SkQ1
Blog posts about SkQ1, newest first.