Is PE-22-28 Banned in Sports? WADA Status, the S0 Question and Drug Tests

PE-22-28 is a seven-amino-acid fragment of the sortilin propeptide, a 44-amino-acid piece clipped off when the body makes the sortilin receptor. Researchers in Nice, France found that part of that propeptide, which they named spadin (residues 12 to 28), blocks a potassium channel in nerve cells called TREK-1. PE-22-28 is the shorter version, residues 22 to 28 only, described in Frontiers in Pharmacology in 2017 as the shortest analog that kept TREK-1 blocking activity.

Two facts matter for the sport question:

• It has no human trials and no approval. Everything published on PE-22-28 itself is cell and rodent work. No drug agency anywhere has approved it for anything. That is different from Semax and Selank, which are at least registered medicines in Russia.
• It is not a hormone, a stimulant or an anabolic agent. Its proposed mechanism, in rodents, runs through serotonin signalling: blocking TREK-1 on serotonergic neurons was associated with increased firing. It is not described as acting on growth hormone, testosterone, red blood cells or any of the classes the List names by function.

More is in what is PE-22-28.

The Prohibited List is published every year and comes into force on 1 January. The 2026 List does not name Selank, Semax, PE-22-28 or DSIP. It does name BPC-157 in S0, CJC-1295, tesamorelin and ipamorelin in S2.2.4, and MOTS-c in S4.4.1.

S0, non-approved substances, prohibits at all times "any pharmacological substance which is not addressed by any of the subsequent sections of the List and with no current approval by any governmental regulatory health authority for human therapeutic use." WADA's explanatory note to the 2027 List says that even if a peptide is not specifically named, "utmost caution should be taken as it may still be prohibited."

Set PE-22-28 against that wording and the argument for caution is stronger than for most unnamed peptides. It is a pharmacological substance. It is not addressed by any later section by name. And it has no current approval by any governmental health authority for human therapeutic use, in any country. A compounded preparation can fall under S0. Whether it does for your sport is your anti-doping body's call, not a seller's and not a prescriber's.

Why S0 does not mean "performance-enhancing"

S0 is a rule about approval status, not a finding that a substance improves performance. PE-22-28 has no performance research at all, in animals or people. That makes no difference to eligibility: if S0 applies, the substance is prohibited regardless of whether it does anything for an athlete.

Anti-doping rules decide what is permitted in competition, independently of what is legal or prescribed. Article 2.1.1 of the World Anti-Doping Code makes it each athlete's personal duty to ensure that no prohibited substance enters their body, and says intent, fault, negligence or knowing use need not be shown to establish a violation. That is strict liability. It also applies to what is actually in the vial, which is why a research-labelled product is a risk in its own right: if a "PE-22-28" vial from a research seller contains something else, the athlete answers for that too.

If your anti-doping body tells you PE-22-28 is prohibited for you, a therapeutic use exemption granted in advance is the only route to permitted use. It requires a diagnosed condition supported by clinical evidence, no enhancement beyond a return to normal health, an indicated treatment with no reasonable permitted alternative, and a need that did not arise from earlier prohibited use. A substance with no human trials will struggle against the "clinical evidence" and "no reasonable permitted alternative" tests. In the United States, USADA directs athletes outside its testing pools to its TUE Pre-Check Form, with a stated response time of three to five business days.

College athletes are governed by the NCAA's banned drug classes, including "peptide hormones, growth factors, related substances and mimetics," and the NCAA bans anything chemically or pharmacologically related to a banned class even if not named, with the school and the student-athlete both accountable. PE-22-28 is not among the NCAA's published examples; ask your athletics health care provider before starting. Professional leagues, military services and some employers run their own policies; read the current one that applies to you.

Workplace panels have no assay for PE-22-28, and a seven-amino-acid peptide has no structural relationship to the drugs of abuse those panels target, so cross-reactivity is not a realistic worry. On the sport side, a substance being hard to find does not make it permitted. Under Code Article 6.6 stored samples can be reanalysed, and Article 17 allows a charge within ten years. The two testing systems are compared in do peptides show up on a drug test.

A separate axis, and a short one. As Pepti's reference page records it, checked in September 2026:

Never categorised, never flagged, never reviewed. Compounded PE-22-28 is legal to prescribe and dispense with a valid prescription, and it is not FDA approved; compounded medications never are. None of this changes anti-doping status, because a compounding decision is not a drug approval. The legal detail is in do you need a prescription for PE-22-28.

Related peptides carry their own answers: is Selank banned in sports, is Semax banned in sports and is Dihexa banned in sports. The athlete overview is in peptides for athletes.

Sport status and evidence are different questions, but athletes ask both. There are no randomised controlled trials of PE-22-28 in humans, and no published human trials of any kind. The 2017 Frontiers in Pharmacology paper reported PE-22-28 reproducing spadin's antidepressant-like effects in mice after a four-day course, with stronger TREK-1 inhibition in cultured cells and a half-life in the mouse of roughly a day. A 2019 Neuropharmacology paper reported sortilin-derived peptides associated with improved recovery in a mouse stroke model. None of it measured strength, endurance, recovery from training or anything an athlete would call performance. The only human data in the area is observational measurement of the body's own sortilin propeptide in blood, which is not a study of giving PE-22-28 to anyone.

PE-22-28 cannot be bought legitimately without a prescription. Sites selling it "for research use only" are not accountable for what is in the vial: identity, purity, sterility and concentration are untested. The prescription route:

1. Complete a free online intake covering your history, every medication (especially antidepressants or other serotonergic drugs) and what you want help with. If you are subject to anti-doping testing, say so there.
2. A physician licensed in your state reviews it, usually within 24 hours.
3. If it is appropriate, a PCAB-accredited, FDA-registered US 503A compounding pharmacy prepares it to that prescription. Lot test results are published at /quality/lab-results.
4. It ships refrigerated with ice packs as a ready-to-use multi-dose solution, with sterile syringes, alcohol prep pads and your directions printed on the vial.
5. Your physician stays reachable for questions through your account.

At Pepti, PE-22-28 is a 5 mL multi-dose vial holding 10 mg at 2 mg/mL, $219 a month all-in, covering medication, physician review, refill management and shipping, with no membership fee. The typical printed direction is 0.25 mL (25 units) subcutaneously once daily Monday through Friday, 20 doses a vial, about four weeks; your physician sets your directions after reviewing your intake. Pepti is cash-pay, does not bill insurance, and prescribes in most US states, not currently in Oklahoma. Step by step: how to get PE-22-28 prescribed online.