Thymosin alpha-1, a 28-amino-acid peptide the thymus makes naturally, is sold as thymalfasin under the brand name Zadaxin for chronic hepatitis B and C and as an immune enhancer, while in the United States it holds only orphan-drug status for a few rare conditions.
A peer-reviewed 2020 review tallied its reach: thymosin alpha-1 is approved in more than 35 countries, and has been studied for chronic hepatitis B and C, several cancers, sepsis, HIV and other infections, and as a booster of vaccine response, with interest renewed by COVID-19.
Its pull on the immune system, raising T cell activity and cytokine signaling, keeps drawing new interest. A review is a summary of other studies rather than new evidence, and the authors argued mainly that the peptide deserves further investigation.
Read the original study
Dominari et al., World Journal of Virology, 2020 · doi.org/10.5501/wjv.v9.i5.67
Approved almost everywhere, known almost nowhere.
Source
- Dominari, A., Hathaway Iii, D., Pandav, K., Matos, W., Biswas, S., Reddy, G., Thevuthasan, S., Khan, M. A., Mathew, A., Makkar, S. S., Zaidi, M., Fahem, M. M. M., Beas, R., Castaneda, V., Paul, T., Halpern, J., & Baralt, D. (2020). Thymosin alpha 1: A comprehensive review of the literature. World Journal of Virology, 9(5), 67–78. https://doi.org/10.5501/wjv.v9.i5.67