Sermorelin vs HGH
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Why Sermorelin Is Preferred to Growth Hormone?
Sermorelin, one member of the group of peptides known as growth hormone-releasing hormone analogues, has been shown to improve wound healing, boost bone density, improve appetite, fight the effects of aging, and help to maintain growth hormone (HGH) levels well into old age. This peptide has been the subject of a great deal of anti-aging research and, helpfully for those wishing to perform clinical research, has already been approved for use in humans as a testing reagent. This versatile peptide is low-cost, potent, easy to produce, and has a robust safety profile. It is an ideal peptide for HGH research as well as an interesting peptide in and of itself. Here are just a few of the reasons one might be interested in sermorelin.
HGH has been around as a medical treatment for growth hormone deficiency for the better part of a century. The ability to administer exogenous HGH is, undisputed, one of the greatest advances in human medicine. Over the years, the process of HGH administration has been refined to make it safer and more effective. For instance, early HGH was extracted from the pituitary glands of human cadavers, and expensive and potentially dangerous process. In 1981, Genentech pioneered the production of recombinant growth hormone, a process that made the peptide hormone cheaper to produce and far safer.
Despite the advances in HGH production methods, however, HGH therapy still carries a number of risks. Side effects of HGH administration include joint swelling, joint pain, and increased risk of diabetes.There is even an increased risk of certain types of cancer.
At least part of the reason that exogenous HGH administration carries the risk of so many severe side effects is that it divorces HGH levels from normal physiologic feedback mechanisms. This occurs because some of the positive and negative controls on the cycle happen at earlier stages in the HGH secretion cascade, such as at the growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor (GHRH-R). When the normal controls on HGH secretion are interrupted, two things can happen. First, HGH levels rise and fall in a much more abrupt manner than is “normal.” This can affect the way that organs and tissues respond to the peptide and increases the risks associated with high levels of HGH. This is referred to as square-wave physiology and contrasts drastically with the normal pattern of HGH secretion as shown in the following diagram.
The second reason that exogenous HGH administration is problematic is that the high levels of HGH can suppress feedback mechanisms. This can totally destroy the normal 24-hour pattern of HGH secretion seen in the diagram above. This is less problematic when treating HGH deficiency than in other settings, but is nonetheless problematic.
The use of sermorelin results in the mitigation of both of the problems expressed above. Sermorelin acetate is subject to normal physiologic feedback mechanisms and thus maintains the normal patterns of HGH secretion. The best way to think of sermorelin is as boosting HGH set-point but maintaining the normal patterns. The diagram below shows how sermorelin affects HGH secretion[1].
The final reason that sermorelin acteate is preferred to HGH is that the body often becomes resistant to HGH over time and that peptide loses its effect. This phenomenon is known as tachyphylaxis and is generally the result of a decrease in the number of receptors for a given ligand. In the case of HGH, too much of the peptide administered over too long a period of time causes the body to decrease the number of HGH receptors, which in turn diminishes the effects of the hormone. The only way to mitigate this effect is via drug holidays, in which administration is halted to allow the receptors to recover. Of course, this means giving up the therapeutic benefit of the peptide during the drug holiday.
Research shows that sermorelin is not subject to tachyphylaxis. In fact, the research that has been done reveals that sermorelin administration increases the number of GHRH-Rs, an effect that is not fully understood[2].
Sermorelin Acetate and Body Composition
Like all HGH secretagogues, sermorelin acetate favors lean body mass over fat mass. This means that peptide encourages muscle growth and bone growth over fat deposition. In fact, sermorelin is a potent fat-burning peptide, like most HGH boosters. Hypogonadism is particularly problematic in men who experience increased effects of lack of sex hormones due to the relative benefits that testosterone provides. While testosterone is still the gold standard of treatment in hypogonadism, scientists are exploring the potential role that sermorelin acetate might have in this setting. In particular, they are interested in how sermorelin can help to reverse muscle atrophy[3].
Sermorelin Boosts Wound Healing
HGH itself is a potent stimulator of wound healing, so it should come as no surprise that peptides like sermorelin, that increase HGH levels, have positive effects on the rate of wound healing. What might be more surprising, however, is the fact that sermorelin can help to reduce scar formation and extent. Scars, while obviously leading to wound healing, can cause tissue- and organ-level dysfunction. Mitigation of scarring while still promoting wound healing is a holy grail of medicine. Nowhere is this more true than in the cardiovascular system.
Scarring of the heart is especially problematic because scars in cardiac tissue interfere with the ability of the heart to conduct electrical impulses and contract correctly as well as efficiently. This is the fundamental process underlying much of heart failure, which is still the leading cause of death in most industrialized nations. Research in rat models shows that sermorelin can protect heart cells from death, increase the production of extracellular matrix components, improve blood vessel growth, and reduce inflammatory cytokine levels. All of these factors lead to reduces in the size of scars following cardiac injury, which in turn leads to improve cardiac function. There is a great deal of interest in using sermorelin in the setting of acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) as a means of reducing the long-term consequences of this devastating event[4], [5].
The Impact of Sermorelin on Sleep
The sleep cycle, which is to say the progression of brain function through the various stages of sleep including REM sleep, is at least partially regulated by orexin. This potent neurochemical is produced by specialized neurons that are strongly associated with growth hormone secretion. Research in fish shows that orexin secretion is heavily dependent on a healthy growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) axis. This research shows that sermorelin can boost orexin secretion via its effects on the GHRH receptor[6].
It should come as no surprise, given the proponents of sermorelin as a potential peptide in the fight against aging, that sleep plays a very prominent role in the aging process. Though it is a common misconception that older people don’t require as much sleep as their younger counterparts, this is absolutely not true. The elderly require just as much sleep as the rest of us, but inadequate sleep is both a cause of and consequence of aging. Recent advances in both the diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea are having a profound effect on improving this situation, but there is still a great deal of room for progress[7]. Sermorelin, but establishing a more youthful GH secretion pattern, may be one of the keys to helping to not only offset the effects of sleep on the aging process, but also the effects of aging on sleep. Dr. Richard Walker, of the International Society for Advanced Research in Aging (SARA), points out that sermorelin may be one of the most effective GHRH-R agonists for addressing the effects of aging and replacing HGH in treating growth hormone deficiency associated with age.
Sermorelin Acetate Cost
Sermorelin offers a number of benefits over HGH, particularly in the research setting. Though cost is not something that we like to think influences science, it is a massive consideration. Research is expensive, particularly once it reaches the clinical stage. Cutting costs anywhere possible means saving money over the long-timer and though it can be hard to see into the future, it stands to reason that lower costs throughout the research cycle will lead to lower costs if the subject of the research ever becomes a viable commercial product.
Sermorelin acetate is very inexpensive in comparison to HGH. This begins with the fact that sermorelin is very easy to produce using recombinant technology. Add to this the fact that sermorelin isn’t under patent and it becomes clear whey sermorelin acetate cost is substantially lower than HGH and other HGH secretagogues. Whereas HGH can cost upwards of $1500 per month in the clinical setting, sermorelin costs less than $200. This, of course, is the sermorelin acetate cost in the medical setting, but can be used to extrapolate to research settings as well. Give that the cost of sermorelin acetate is roughly seven and a half times less than HGH, any research endeavor that offers the ability to use sermorelin in place of HGH will have resources left over to invest in other aspects of the project, including other peptides and equipment.
Resources
[1] R. F. Walker, “Sermorelin: a better approach to management of adult-onset growth hormone insufficiency?,” Clin. Interv. Aging, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 307–308, 2006, doi: 10.2147/ciia.2006.1.4.307.
[2] S. T. Wahid, P. Marbach, B. Stolz, M. Miller, R. A. James, and S. G. Ball, “Partial tachyphylaxis to somatostatin (SST) analogues in a patient with acromegaly: the role of SST receptor desensitisation and circulating antibodies to SST analogues,” Eur. J. Endocrinol., vol. 146, no. 3, pp. 295–302, Mar. 2002, doi: 10.1530/eje.0.1460295.
[3] D. K. Sinha et al., “Beyond the androgen receptor: the role of growth hormone secretagogues in the modern management of body composition in hypogonadal males,” Transl. Androl. Urol., vol. 9, no. Suppl 2, pp. S149–S159, Mar. 2020, doi: 10.21037/tau.2019.11.30.
[4] L. L. Bagno et al., “Growth Hormone–Releasing Hormone Agonists Reduce Myocardial Infarct Scar in Swine With Subacute Ischemic Cardiomyopathy,” J. Am. Heart Assoc. Cardiovasc. Cerebrovasc. Dis., vol. 4, no. 4, Mar. 2015, doi: 10.1161/JAHA.114.001464.
[5] R. M. Kanashiro-Takeuchi et al., “New therapeutic approach to heart failure due to myocardial infarction based on targeting growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor,” Oncotarget, vol. 6, no. 12, pp. 9728–9739, Mar. 2015.
[6] B. S. Shepherd et al., “Endocrine and orexigenic actions of growth hormone secretagogues in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss),” Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A. Mol. Integr. Physiol., vol. 146, no. 3, pp. 390–399, Mar. 2007, doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2006.11.004.
[7] “A Good Night’s Sleep,” National Institute on Aging. http://www.nia.nih.gov/health/good-nights-sleep (accessed Nov. 22, 2020).