Is Apelin legal in the United Kingdom?

A vasodilator and cardiac inotrope in humans, shown by infusion in about 50 people including 18 with heart failure, where its effect was preserved when acetylcholine's was not. The sarcopenia-reversal claim is mouse work; three completed human studies of apelin and insulin sensitivity or cardiovascular effects have never posted results.

Apelin is a family of peptides cut from a 77 amino acid precursor: apelin-36, apelin-31, apelin-28 and apelin-13, with pyroglutamated apelin-13 usually reported as the dominant circulating form. All of them activate the APJ receptor, a class A G protein-coupled receptor also targeted by a second, unrelated ligand called ELABELA.

Mechanism: Established in humans by infusion: apelin peptides cause arterial vasodilatation that depends on nitric oxide (abolished by a nitric oxide clamp, unaffected by aspirin), have no effect on venous tone, increase coronary blood flow and left ventricular contractility, and raise cardiac output while lowering blood pressure and peripheral resistance, in healthy people and in heart failure alike. Established in mice: apelin is induced by muscle contraction, declines with age, and its absence or its receptor's absence produces marked age-related muscle deterioration; restoring it improves muscle function through mitochondrial biogenesis, autophagy, anti-inflammatory signalling and muscle stem cell effects.

Regulatory history: Not FDA-approved. No apelin peptide or APJ receptor agonist is approved anywhere. Novartis's APJ agonist CLR325 completed a 26-patient phase 2 safety study in heart failure in 2019; native apelin has been given to people only in acute physiology studies.

Licenses medicines for the UK market. A compound without a marketing authorisation is an unlicensed medicine, which can only lawfully be supplied for human use through a prescriber under the specials scheme, not sold as a research product.

The classification above is the The Longevity Archive reading of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Apelin at the reviewed date, not a legal opinion. Rules change, and importing, prescribing and possessing a compound can each be treated differently. Check the regulator directly before acting on anything here.