Plant Peptides: Future Of Medical Wellness

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Thanks for having me on.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

We were talking a little bit before. You have such a cool background in sports and the military. It makes sense that you stumbled upon peptides.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

For sure. My background is exactly that. I started with Elite Sport with sweeps, rowing, and moves through rugby and hockey. and then it’s military, looking at everything from performance through to rehabilitation, and we’re always looking for new ingredients. If we look at the industry as a whole in terms of everything from vitamins and minerals to supplements through to food, many of those ingredients have been developed for taste, texture, and the macronutrients within them. But there were very few novel ingredients that gave us defined health benefits that were new. Those ingredients are old in terms of the claims, and that changes that taste, and texture, very small changes, new molecules of the same function. Peptides can transform that landscape. Yes, when I first found out about the company, Nuritas, I  couldn’t grasp it exactly. Could you explain exactly what you’re doing there? How can these peptides that you’re finding be patented?

The company Nuritas was founded by Dr. Nora Khaldi, who’s a PhD mathematician and computer scientist. She had a vision of being able to show up to discovery. And so we know that finding a new molecule can take 100 years, and the success rate is small. and she wanted to shortcut that. To do that, we built Magnifier, an AI platform, to do that. We hear so much now about AI, large language models, and ChatGPT creating almost imaginary text. That’s not what this is about. She spent seven years building a unique data set, and what we did was take over 500 different plant sources. We dried them and ground them down. We ran them through mass spectroscopy after digesting them with various enzymes.

We cataloged the peptides. We currently have over 8.5 million peptides from plants in our library. That’s proprietary on its own. It’s not that interesting. What we want to know is what those peptides do in the human body. We have 200 million biological assays on cells to match all of the peptides with function. That’s how a magnifier works. When we want to look at a health need, such as muscle health, we can ask the magnifier what the best pathways are that we can address. At the same time, in terms of protein synthesis, reduction of muscle breakdown, reduction of inflammation, and bone density, then look for the fingerprints back in the peptides. If you imagine Monsters Inc., that fantastic Disney movie where you walk into that room and you see all of the doors that are magnified, you can just reach a door and find a peptide that links to a body receptor what it might then do. Unlike pharma, you produce them synthetically. These are biological fats from palms, food-grade right from the start.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

I love that except with Monsters Inc., they’re going to scare people and you’re going to help people, which is the awesome thing. I love that. This is from plants when I grasped this concept. When I first heard about your company, I was like, this is so unique, and it probably scares pharma a little bit. Some of these drug companies.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We are food grade. And so, we have peptides that already have GRAS certification because the source materials have been in the human food chain for many centuries. Indeed, somebody somewhere would have digested those fava beans, those lentils, and those peas in the same way that we do when we produce the ingredient that has much more than one single peptide. We often use an array of peptides to approach different mechanisms. unlike pharma, where there’d normally be a single mechanism, a peptide that is synthetic and heavily modified, these are linear, small peptides that we’ve shown to be stable, to be absorbed by the glass, and active in the body. It’s a multitude of peptides working on very specific mechanisms for different pharma.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

You mentioned bioavailability. How are these peptides made bioavailable? Have run into some situations where you thought something was going to work in humans, and then it just petered out?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We’ve been fortunate enough to magnify the risks of a lot of that process. A lot of the biological work we did early on was looking at the various parameters of the peptides in terms of the sequences that we know will survive the simulated gut and can be built into the model. With, let’s say, muscle health or glucose metabolism, we might initially start with 10,000 potential peptides that can affect, upregulate, upregulate, or downregulate the actual pathways we’re interested in. But a proportion of those aren’t bioavailable. They’re either hydrophobic or they won’t cross the gut. and so,  therefore, those are automatically discarded. They’re not useless because we can use them as a single peptide in the future somewhere else. After all, magnifiers can work on different platforms. But for now, we’re very much focused on food-grade so they’re discarded. We go to something where we’ve demonstrated with AI that the gut survivability and human effect are there, and we’ve been fortunate. The success rate of the trial so far is 80%, which is very good.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes, 80% is amazing. For those listening out there, the magnifier is taking all these thousands of broken-down plant materials and plugging them into the algorithm to see what would even work and what wouldn’t. Then you plug something in like you want to focus on muscle growth or like you said, inflammation. It will tell you which ones are the best match.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Remember that peptides are just small strings of protein. They’re very small proteins. We don’t look into small ones, two, or three dipeptides. They’re small molecules, very different mechanisms, and much more, drug discovery. We tend to look in the midrange of peptides around five to 30 amino acids long. These are proteins that have a very specific receptor. Therefore, we can match and, create a clinical effect. That’s the way it works.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That makes a lot of sense. You’re not focusing on the little things, like more bioregulators. You’re focusing on the bigger peptides for a more focused result.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We know that they’re breaking down quite quickly. We know that they survive that digestion process, but they’re not further broken down. so we can measure the action in terms of human clinical trials. What we’ve been able to do is remove the animal modeling. Otherwise, we would need to do that process because of the AI. It’s a good use of AI. Unlike the models that are now present, it evolves. From the start of some semi-supervised AI modeling, now, very much of the generative modeling is where we can look for the receptor, the docking site, and the peptide sequences themselves to make that linkage.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Now, you mentioned clinical trials, and clinical trials are a big deal. They’re hard sometimes, especially when you look at the peptide world. How are you running clinical trials? Aren’t they expensive?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Let me talk you through PeptiStrong, our flagship ingredient. It’s focused very much on muscle health. We’ve done three human clinical trials. The first human clinical was in 30 young male subjects, and we immobilized their legs in plaster casts to simulate sarcopenia. We gave half of the group milk protein concentrates a typical ingredient within hospital nutrition, particularly for the soft, and then the other half, we gave PeptiStrong. After the one-week immobilization, we took the cast off and then allowed the subjects to walk around for two weeks. Then we brought them back and had a look at it. The muscle biopsy demonstrated a four times increase in protein synthesis in the PeptiStrong group compared to milk protein. We had four times more protein syntheses. Muscle mass remained the same between the two groups. Interestingly, the strength of the PeptiStrong group was 10 to 103% of baseline strength after only two weeks of walking around, whereas milk protein concentrate is still at 60%.

That was the first clinical trial, the parameters were getting enough subjects to be immobilized for a week. Rather than anything else we stuck with males and then a muscle biopsy. It’s a pretty detailed study that has already been published. The second clinical trial I ran before joining the company. and here we took a 30- to 50-year-old; these were trained athletes. then we put them in Cybex like a leg extension, to exhaustion, PeptiStrong versus placebo at 2.4g. and we looked at 48 hours and 72 hours after the study. What we found here was 148% of baseline strength, 72 hours post-recovery, which was remarkable. That’s what convinced me to join Nuritas and my direction was elsewhere. and what we also found in terms of repeated measures around the curve, the number of reps in the first set versus the number of reps in the last set, and a muscular endurance or an energy test was a 54% difference between the two groups.

The second trial, very much looking at energy, muscular endurance, and recovery. We’ve just finished a third clinical with 52 subjects, men and women. looking at the effects of a two-month strength program four times a week. Static weights: PeptiStrong, 2.4g versus placebo. We looked at strength again, muscular endurance but also bone density. The bone density change was remarkable because there was a 1% change in two months in men and women, which is very much equivalent to the vitamin D supplementation that we might see. But with muscular endurance, we saw doubling. The number of reps being able to perform to exhaustion, before and after. PeptiStrong compared to placebo, with a 20% increase in strength overall. We’re very careful with clinical trials about what we’re asking the trial to do to make sure what powers the primary outcome measure; we use CRO, so we’re not doing the research in-house. It’s very important to us that it’s external. We have two clinical trials running at the moment in both glucose management and sleep. We might touch for a little while.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s amazing. For those watching out there, the 1% increase in bone density is so big. I’m shocked by that. I’m floored by that. The first study where you were talking about immobilization. We see this a lot in, people who tear their ACL and are recovering post-hip surgery. The fact that this peptide can help with strength. When they get out of that cast, they’re not losing that muscle strength. If you’ve ever seen anyone come out of a fresh cast, I have seen a lot in medicine. They’re atrophied from not using that and even the stretch of the muscle because you need the stretch in the muscle to maintain the muscle mass and strength. This is amazing. It’s cool. In each of these three studies, were there any side effects, or do you anticipate any negative side effects of taking PeptiStrong long-term?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Not five. It’s I, and PeptiStrong comes from the fava bean. It has a 2.4-gram dose. It’s hydrolysis, and so if you were taking significant amounts of fava bean from patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, there’s a risk of fava bean. But with PeptiStrong, it’s the equivalent of about four fava beans ingestion. It’s a small dose. In terms of tolerability. But it’s interesting what you say about the sarcopenia or the muscle wasting. It’s easy to forget that muscle is the largest organ in the body. Too often, skin gets the credit because each of the skeletal muscles is separate. so we don’t often lock them all together. However, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published an interesting analysis that looked at muscle strength about all causes of mortality. We see a 17% reduction in all-cause mortality with a small increase in strength. That’s having good strength. It’s not whole-body strength. So it’s so easy to overlook that we focus on small molecules in terms of their potential role in longevity.

We look at rodent studies looking at longevity. But we’ve got great clinical data already showing that muscle strength is probably the biggest reversible tool that we have in terms of longevity. We’re using all-cause mortality. It’s easy to forget all the causes of cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, and dementia. They all decrease with muscle strength. and it’s exciting. PeptiStrong, though there’s that sarcopenic audience, there’s a sport and exercise audience, and the recreation, and there is also just living. It’s got an effect on your muscle strength and, therefore, your longevity, which is one of the most exciting things about it.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Talking about muscle, I love talking about muscle because, when I hit my 40s, I was obsessed with it. With muscle, I’m like, sarcopenia, you start losing muscle. Women, especially women in their mid-30s, have to start lifting and paying attention. It’s helpful, though, because my four-year-old is almost 50 pounds. It’s good to have that muscle strength. We’re on vacation, and he was on my back. I was carrying him a lot, and It’s good for me. But the other thing with PeptiStrong that I think is cool is that it affects myostatin. I would love for you to talk about that because my husband is one of them. He gets torn up when I lift him with me because I just like to push him hard and he’s too sore and he can’t even sit on the toilet.  I’ve had him take some PeptiStrong, and it helped with that post-exercise soreness.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

In the second study, we looked at a number of my clients to see those with subjective measures such as soreness and the like. We know that Pepti-Strong contains mostly peptides. The main anabolic peptide is upregulated by mTOR via the As-6 phosphatase pathway. But we also see through the antigen-pass pathway, as you say, myostatin suppression. We measured that with serum at 48 hours and 72 hours post-exercise, as well as medium post-exercise, between the placebo and the PeptiStrong group. We saw that suppression throughout those two days. We also see, as you expect, a dampening down of aisle six and other inflammatory cytokines associated with muscle damage that correlates with some of the subjective questionnaires about how people feel. People will say, I feel like I have the energy and the ability to go again. I felt less soreness. and that bears out with our ability to potentiate because those PeptiStrong are probably getting stronger even two days after or 48 hours after exercise.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That part’s exciting. With this specific peptide, some of the more short-term studies, have you found that if someone’s using this with someone out there, they’re listening? They’re like, I want to try PeptiStrong. So, say they’re like 60 years old. They broke a hip. They want to start taking it for recovery and to reduce that loss as well as bone density. Now, do they just keep taking it? Do they have to take breaks? Sometimes we cycle peptides. Are these different from the other peptides? Do you use it continuously? Do you take breaks? Do you lose the effect if you don’t take it?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

For perspective, we study the effect. There’s a cumulative effect for up to seven days. When we look at mitochondrial action, when we look at energy force production, that effect is quite small, up to about seven days. The longest trial that we’ve run to date is two months. We certainly see no side effects across that profile. and these natural linear peptides are short and broken down very quickly. We wouldn’t expect these to be synthetic and heavily designed in terms of improving half-life or anything along those lines in terms of drying the body. There is no reason why patients can’t take these daily. 2.4g is the study dose. and that’s the optimum dose I generated. We have seen patients divide this up across the day and split their dose. and it’s available in multiple formats and also around the world. Multiple end-use applications have a strong already being from bars that are focused on longevity through two capsules with pure peptide strength or capsules that are blended in longevity supplements with others, such as whey protein, and ready-to-drink shakes. It’s beginning to penetrate. Our user base is already in the tens of thousands in terms of strong users. It’s something we’ve got a large number of people using daily.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s exciting. It’s a great product. I enjoy it. I’m glad I got to use it before talking with you. What’s next in the innovation pipeline? What else are you guys working on?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We’ve got two clinical trials currently underway. We talked about talking about the first one, peptide sleep. We know that sleep is a problem. and from a longevity perspective, it’s a piece of our sleep. The latency is over an hour. When we go to sleep, we know that’s 5% of all deaths. If we can improve sleep latency, improve deep sleep, and change rhythm, that’s something that we ought to do. So we’ve taken a different approach. We focused on the erection pathway and lowering cortisol. We have a peptide network that lowers cortisol from a large anti-inflammatory perspective as an empty and sorry pathway and that network of peptides we have in clinical trials trials in Australia right now. One of the interesting things is that we were using Oura rings to translate. We must start to incorporate wearable technology within our technical trials because that’s our end customer and our end consumer. We know that 36% of Americans alone use some form of sleep tracking. I don’t know whether we use it or not, but we wear it, and so therefore, being able to demonstrate that ingredient has a direct impact is very important. That clinical trial is underway at the moment, and we’re excited about the effects that’s had so far. coming in Q3, and then we’ve got a spring trial.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Are you looking at, like, I’m like, sign me up with my Oura ring? Are you looking at REM sleep and non-REM deep sleep, all of that? Because that’s what you look like. You’re going to have to have all the data.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

It’s amazing. We’ve got an eight-week trial. looking at the library, cortisol, range of blood, zero images, three questionnaires, focus and attention in the back score, as well as all of the data that are provided and, of course, blinded the participants. They don’t have the retina, and they don’t have the sleep data. That’s only for us. So, we have, of course, latency. We’ve got the phases of REM sleep; we’ve got duration; we’ve got movements; we’ve got body temperature; and we’ve got risk. All of the great parameters that Oura ring can give us. Of course, that means that to sleep, they’re in their own home. They’re in the same sleep environment. Professor Rhonda Orr in Queensland, is very experienced in running sleep trials. We chose that unit to run with it with all their expertise. We’re keen to display some of the potential harms or side effects that melatonin would have and be a direct competitor to that. But also has a wider portfolio because there are anti-anxiety effects here as well as an anti-inflammatory effect of peptides within the ingredients. We’ve got that dual function again, which is characteristic of new peptides, so that we can replace more than one ingredient in a formulation, formulation, making those three into a label. and because sources almost always come with an organic or vegan option. So we can satisfy the clean-up and environmental impact that our ingredients need to have.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s exciting. Sleep is one of the pillars of health. You could be doing all of these things. But if you’re not getting good, restorative sleep, it will not. Your body will not do it in the long run. It would be interesting to see how this new peptide sleep, as you called it, would help shift workers. I always tell my shift workers to just get off the night shift, but maybe if it would help with that, then that would be amazing. 

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

One of the things that we see with both pharma medications and, in some circumstances, with melatonin is a hangover in the morning. We see that grogginess and lack of focus, particularly with manual workers or those doing repetitive tasks, make it very difficult to stay focused. So that’s why the med school is very integrated into this. We got attention, a task to look at, and our effects on morning wakening to see whether or not we can induce sleep without disrupting that morning routine.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes. That’s exciting. You said there was another clinical trial underway.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

It would be remiss not to enter the metabolic space. So we have peptide control—again, an interesting array of peptides. Here, we’re focused on DPP4, glute4, and GLP1. We have three mechanisms of action. Glute4 of the glucose uptake into muscle cells. and what we see in the muscle cells is increasing glycolysis. It’s not that these cells are taking up the glucose and sitting and allowing it to turn into fat. The glycolysis is stimulated at the same time, which gives the subject energy or that feeling of energy but also has GLP1 agonist activity to improve satiety alongside DPP4 inhibition, which is more established in terms of glucose management. With this, where again, we’re using wearable technology. 24-hour glucose monitoring: we start with a glucose tolerance test so we can see the immediate effect. Some of our n equals one data is pretty dramatic in terms of flattening the curve, not seeing that or overshoot, and improving postprandial concentration so that we’re focused after eating, and so that’s giving us some real excitement in terms of the options for where this might sit, both in terms of weight management and in terms of satiety, but also in terms of reducing the inflammation that we see with high circulating difficulties Also the chance for people to get more choice. We can see people moving towards a more restrictive diet for all the right reasons. but by incorporating this and that, it’s the ability to lessen the impact of carbohydrates. If you were to deviate from that, those choices. It’s a good space for us to be in, particularly with the immediate effect, looking at the continuous glucose monitoring, and that trial is underway.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Now, when will these be out?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We can also both report Q3, so we will launch Q4 this year. both of those ingredients will be will be, hitting the market then.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s exciting. Now for the glucose one, do you think that you have heard anything about the subjects? Is it similar to something like semaglutide or dessert petite, or what are these people feeling about? 

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

It works differently. So the semaglutide GLP1 agonist is a very specific receptor. In that pharma space, they’re very heavily modified for a variety of properties. These are unmodified, plant-based pathways, and those three different pathways. DPP4 and VLP1. We have a broader effect. It’s not just about feeling full. It’s not just about adapting insulin and limiting that spike. It’s about reducing inflammation, feeling full, and getting more energy from what you eat. In reducing the impact of that sugar. Different focus, much broader, in terms of age. We have done some early work for this in terms of HBA1. We won’t see any human clinical trials in broad ranges, that demonstrate a 0.1% reduction in HBA1. That’s a clinically significant change. It’s interesting in terms of longevity, that’s important. In terms of the diabetic population, it’s not very important. But in terms of a healthy normal population, which is where these things are, the target is that they’re significant. Its acute action is what we’re looking at now because that’s where it sits being able to help.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s great. That makes a lot of sense. This would be more for someone who maybe has some insulin resistance that could be reversed or someone who just wants to have a week of more carbs and wants to flatten that curve. Is that more what we’re looking for?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

It fits in everything, from a drink that you could have with your main meal to reducing the impact of any carbs within it. It sits within a meal replacement and helps you feel fuller, reduces the sugars that are in it in terms of their impact, it sits in the foods themselves in terms of bread-based or baked goods to reduce the impact of that carbohydrate. As you say, in that pre-metabolic syndrome, a preexisting patient who’s struggling to do all the right things. It’s a help along the way, helping to feel fuller, helping to mitigate against some poor choices, or allowing more choice. But we’ve got to be practical. As we know, although the world is moving towards more whole foods and fewer carbohydrates, there is a small subset of the population that can make those choices. A lot of the population can afford those options, and we’re presented with those options. Being able to try to improve the health benefits of those foods is something that we’ve been very passionate about in the past. Being able to provide these small ingredients that sit within foods or can be taken with foods and that can impart true health benefits is something that we are very focused on.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That would be great. I’m sitting here thinking it would be great to have all three of these peptides for patients in hospitals. You have someone there for surgery. You’re protecting their muscles and their bone density. You’re helping them sleep. Because when I was working in the ICU and in-patient in the hospital on trauma surgery or whatever, patients, they’re in there, they’re not getting good sleep and they’re not sleeping, and you’re trying to get them to heal, and then they’re not sleeping well. Then the hospital food is junk and has a lot of carbs, so they just need to put all of these in the hospital. We know that won’t happen, but we find it.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We’re looking at that in the UK at the moment in terms of whether PeptiStrong could be added to the normal diet because the inclusion costs are much smaller than the medical fees. So a hospital, a nursing home, or a care home and think about saving money by using these small doses that will blend within, either it is a sprinkle on a meal that’s already being prepared, to add some health benefits, or indeed within a blended shake or soup. But because the medical food costs are specific and expensive, particularly the prescription versions, we’re looking actively at the moment as to whether we can include them. But you know peptides are small. These are small ingredients that can work together and synergistically become a personalized addiction to an ingredient. Being able to pick and choose is very important.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

The UK, which probably might happen. I don’t know about the US; I just don’t know and don’t see it happening. But maybe, if you guys started over there and got good results, I would think maybe some high-end nursing homes here would incorporate that with an integrative medical director. But once people start learning about these peptides and the science behind them, it’s going to be the standard of care. It has to be. I would think I would hope that in ten years from now, everyone will know about PeptiStrong. because there have been three clinical investigations already, three clinical studies.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We’re lucky that others are now taking PeptiStrong and starting to do all the work. We’re midway through an NIH grant application to look at using PeptiStrong in malnourished children to reduce the size and the impact of soy protein to see whether or not the FHR protein synthesis rate is four times greater with PeptiStrong. We remove three-quarters of the soy protein to get the same effect. Can we reduce the burden of shipping and flying this feed around the world? But then also to look at the effects of PeptiStrong with GLP1. Can we preserve muscle mass in those patients who are prescribed GLP1? Does it work synergistically as a food solution to try to balance the two? We see our ingredients in all sectors. and being able to impart, for the first time, quickly, as you say, clinically proven human benefits in small doses.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s amazing, for sure. Now, where can people get the nutritious peptides? Where can we find these?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Multiple areas are already in the US and broadly across Europe, in both Switzerland and France, in many direct-to-consumer products.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s exciting. I take the GLP1 and I enjoy it. It’s just four capsules, and you’re done. How do you recommend taking the specific peptides from the products? Do you have people take them with food or without food? What’s the best way to take these peptides?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Often people ask, “Do you need protein with PeptiStrong to get it to work?” We’ve done some interesting work with leucine. and leucine constituent part amino acid within whey protein but also in branched amino acids. We found that if you put leucine in with PeptiStrong, we double the effect of leucine. If you take leucine away, we still get that amplification of the ample pathway without the leucine. PeptiStrong is not a protein bust. You don’t need to have a blend; you can just take capsules on your own without any other supplementation. It’s also blended into capsules, into stick packs, into chewable, with whey, and now into food. There are longevity bars in Heinen’s Supermarket, with peptides from within, as chewable in a bar. So you can pretty much take it as you went, and certainly, in my studies, it has been about morning, an hour and a half before exercise dosing seems to work both ways equally.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s great to know because sometimes it’s hard to time out all these supplements, and patients get stressed out. You can just take it any time, and you’re going to do 

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We all have a supplement regime. We like to take them on in the morning with food, before breakfast, or in the evening. That routine just fits very comfortably with me.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s awesome. And what’s the future like after you guys hit the glucose, the sleep you hit the muscle? What’s next? What are some ideas?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

The current innovation pipeline looks like we have five discovery projects a year for which to make three different trials. Women’s health is high on the agenda, along with other information coming up. They’re two of our next targets. We also have some topical skin peptides that have already got PeptiYouth and PeptiProtect that work via different mechanisms on the skin, and we’ll continue to expand that topical personal care range alongside our oral ingestible range.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s great. What are the skin ones? Are those commercially available? Did you do trials with those also?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

They have to use human chemical trials, which work via collagen. It was originally found in PE, a single peptide. That peptide works incredibly well with retinol and, also, with vitamin C, and that’s where it lies at a very low inclusion rate of 35 DBM. A small dosage and is being formulated already in clinical trials looking at wrinkle depth, skin smoothness, and skin hydration. but also those synergistic effects. The latest product on the market is PeptiProtect. This is the peptide that we originally found in microalgae. and is remarkable because it works via the connection. One receptor connects, and one receptor is interesting. When ATP binds to it, it triggers all of the inflammatory and cytokine responses to sunlight. UVA and UVB, so UVA hits the skin, triggers the connection and the release of ATP, and this PeptiProtects blocks that ATP release. It’s very much focused on protecting against sun damage, reducing dark spots and wrinkles, and improving skin smoothness at the same time. That has one clinical trial. So, moving forward, we’ll have this personal care where we’re discovering new innovative mechanisms alongside our whole body, which is ingestible human health.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s awesome. Especially with longevity, inside and out is skincare, of course. But you still want to take care of the skin with all the creams and all the things that you can. So. with the skin stuff, can you pair it with GHK copper peptides for a double-whammy effect?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

The former likes to see all the experts involved in creating formulations that work. certainly, we’ve seen some pretty exciting formulations for launches this year and next year that I can’t put into too much detail, some exciting formulations are putting PeptiYouth synergistically with other ingredients. then also now at PeptiProtect.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s great. What is the best way to find out where the peptides that the company discovers are? Are they going to just go to the website?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Go to the website nuritas.com, where we’ll take you to where you can buy, where our customers are working, and where they can buy products for longevity. It follows an already-formulated and refined longevity supplement with PeptiStrong.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

It’s super exciting. I love that you said five per year and then three clinical trials per year. That’s why you are probably putting out two or three new peptides a year.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

That’s right we’re comfortable with it. A magnifier allows us to do that. That’s why all that early investment and early work into the platform has given us the ability to pre-sell it. That doesn’t stop us from, in the future, looking at individual peptides and taking them further. But for now, we have this huge resource. There’s this largest database of plant-based peptides that are there, and we’ll tap those, but for the benefit of everybody.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

The future of medicine. Do you think you’re going to continue the clinical trials for those three peptides that you are already trialing with the PeptiStrong or will you just stop where you’re at?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Not at all. One of our commitments as an ingredient supplier is to continue to produce physical evidence for our customers so that they can use those. Also, we understand more and more about the ingredients for different age groups and different target audiences. Our customers come to us with questions, and can we answer them in these populations? We’re lucky enough to have a little taking on PeptiStrong and running trials themselves. and we’re very keen to be able to do that—to take it all and see what your population is, how you work with the ingredients—and it’s an Olympic year. There’s a huge amount of interest in both national governing bodies and professional teams in taking PeptiStrongs into the Olympics. Hopefully, we’ll make some pretty strong announcements soon about how PeptiStrong is working with professional athletes.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Yes. That’s exciting. Now, you brought up an important point. Do you think these will ever get banned? 

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

One is very clear, synthetic peptides and synthetic peptide hormones are off the cards.  They are been banned under S1 through S4 pass. These are linear peptides in the food chain, a lot of which are plant-based and aren’t hormones. So we’re very different from that water class. and we don’t make any links directly to them. We’re very comfortable with the NCAA in terms of water certification. Indeed, many of our customers have gone on to get informed and sport-tested to demonstrate their safety and efficacy within that space.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s exciting. You also mentioned for PeptiStrong that they were talking about using it in children. Because it’s plant-based, you can give these to children if needed.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

With our across the nation, we can go about it too. What we’re currently looking at is a clinical trial in children as young as six months, mainly to focus on the malnutrition space, which sadly is prevalent even within our inner cities, not just in developing countries. So space where PeptiStrong can do good across multiple generations, from cradle through to the elderly.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

A lot of kids, especially in the US, they’re on ADHD medication and all of that, and they’re losing muscle mass because they’re not eating, as this could be sprinkled into their food or, like, a protein shake or, autistic kids, pans and pandas, stuff like that. I see the future of this looking so good for that. That is exciting. Now, would you just use more of Clark’s rule for dosing kids because, for adults, it’s 2.5g?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

We would, and that’s certainly who we’ve been working with. then the half-dosing down to children seems to be where we landed for our safety trial with children. Something that would make sense.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

I don’t know if you guys listening are super pumped about this, but when I first heard about PeptiStrong, it was a new thing. I’m super pumped, especially talking with you more. It’s just that if you’re competing, you can use it. This is nice because a lot of the peptides out there, the growth hormone-releasing peptides, and such, you can’t take. This is something that’s going to help you in the gym, along with your creatine, whey, and all of that. It’s exciting for those who are obsessed with muscle like I am.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

It has a home. Regardless of the sect you’re in, if you’re less active and struggling to get motivated, that muscular energy effect is significant. being able to get out the door to get up, to go do your shopping, to go out to the park, in that training population in terms of recovery, but also the anabolic effects and then the sudden suppression. but then also in perimenopausal women, in menopausal women, when we find that woman, we’re in the trial in a third trial. so demonstrate the difference. One of the interesting things about the women’s subgroup was that we found an almost 10% increase in the first month and a 10% increase in the second month with women, whereas the men were a little bit quicker in terms of the first month but then plateaued. Women have specific effects that we need to look at more in the future. But it is exciting.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

That’s great. Especially you mentioned postmenopausal women. I have patients who are breast cancer survivors. I can’t put them on estradiol right away. This is a great application for their bone density.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

It’s the big thing. It fits in these clear signals: strength, muscle energy, muscle recovery, and then bone density, and three areas where, as an ingredient, it has multiple peptides that can take specific mechanisms of action but give us clear health benefits at the end.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Thank you so much for your time. You’re in Ireland, so it’s late there, and this blue light is probably not good for your dinner at home. We appreciate you being here. Can you tell if anyone wants to reach out and how to reach out to you?

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

nuritas.com is the website, and reach out on LinkedIn Andrew Franklyn Miller, and I’ll be delighted to connect.

Jen Pfleghaar, DO, ABOIM

Thank you so much for your passion and everything you do.

Andy Franklyn-Miller, PhD

Thanks. It’s nice to talk to you.