A short chain of building blocks
A peptide consists of protein building blocks joined into a short chain.
Lee and colleagues described MOTS-c in a paper published in 2015; it contains sixteen of those blocks.
The coloured shapes show the chain described by Lee: MOTS-c has sixteen protein building blocks.
An unusual place for its recipe
Cells are the tiny parts that make up the body. Inside them are mitochondria, which help supply energy.
Mitochondria contain DNA, the instructions for making substances in the body. Lee’s study found the instructions for making MOTS-c there, away from the cell’s main DNA.
The body already makes it
Researchers have measured the body’s own MOTS-c in blood and muscle.
That is a finding about what is present in the body. It does not establish what adding a manufactured injection would do.
Keep the word “peptide” in proportion
Calling a substance a peptide does not give it permission to be used as a medicine under US rules, as of September 26, 2026.
An injection offer needs its own evidence and its own explanation of how the product can be supplied. The word alone cannot answer either question.
Keep this in mind
Knowing what MOTS-c is helps you read the evidence; it does not tell you what an injection can deliver.
A question to take
Are we talking about my body’s own MOTS-c or a manufactured injection?
Open my notes