Emerging Molecules
SS-31 is a cardiolipin-targeted peptide with a drug-development history
Szeto’s 2014 review describes a first-in-class mitochondrial peptide. Any approved use, if one exists when you read this, is whatever the current FDA label says.
SS-31, also called elamipretide, MTP-131, and Bendavia in the development literature, is a small peptide designed to concentrate in mitochondria and bind cardiolipin, the phospholipid that organizes the inner-membrane respiratory chain. Hazel Szeto’s 2014 review in the British Journal of Pharmacology is the clearest single account of that idea: protect cardiolipin, and you may restore bioenergetics in tissues where mitochondria fail first.
Development is not the same as a research listing
Unlike most peptides in consumer catalogs, elamipretide has been treated as a drug candidate, with sponsor trials in cardiac, renal, ophthalmic, and genetic mitochondrial disease. Trial outcomes have been mixed, which is normal, and this summary will not freeze a “failed” or “approved” label into a sentence that will go stale. The current FDA record is the status. A research-supply page selling SS-31 by the milligram is not that record, and it is not the material used in a sponsored trial.
How to read the mechanism without overreading it
Cardiolipin binding is a biochemical claim with preclinical support. It does not specify a human dose, and it does not mean every fatigued person has a cardiolipin deficit this peptide will fix. Link the review. Then look up the indication you actually care about on ClinicalTrials.gov or in an FDA label before repeating a clinical claim.