Is Platelet Factor 4 legal in Canada?

A platelet chemokine that three independent laboratories reported in 2023 restores cognition in aged mice. It is higher in young human plasma than old, and has never been given to a person.

In August 2023 three independent groups published in Nature Communications, Nature and Nature Aging within a month of each other, all converging on the same molecule. Platelet factor 4, also called CXCL4, is a chemokine released by platelets.

Mechanism: In mice, systemic PF4 reduces age-related hippocampal neuroinflammation at transcriptional and cellular levels, produces molecular changes associated with synaptic plasticity, and improves cognition, with the chemokine receptor CXCR3 mediating part of the effect and with restoration of the ageing peripheral immune system implicated. One of the 2023 papers places PF4 downstream of klotho.

Regulatory history: Not approved as a therapy and never administered to a human. PF4 appears in clinical medicine as the antigen measured in testing for heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, which is diagnostic rather than therapeutic.

Authorises drugs for sale through a Notice of Compliance and Drug Identification Number. A compound that is not authorised for sale cannot lawfully be sold for human use, and personal importation of prescription drugs is limited.

The classification above is the The Longevity Archive reading of Health Canada, Health Products and Food Branch listings for Platelet Factor 4 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.