Dihexa Dosage: Common Protocol and the Rat Study Numbers
No human trial has ever given anyone dihexa. The only real dosing figures are from rat studies: oral, IP and ICV doses reported below, as rat doses.
The short version
There is no trial-established human dose of dihexa. No published human trial has given anyone a dose, and FDA says it has not identified any human exposure data on dihexa acetate by any route. Clinic and vendor dosing guides commonly describe 10-100 mg taken orally, 1 to 3 times a week rather than daily, in roughly 4-8 week cycles with a 4-week break. That is common practice, not a dose any trial or regulator has established. The only published numbers are from rat studies, reported below as rat doses and never converted into a human figure.
- Clinic and vendor guides commonly describe 10-100 mg oral, 1-3 times a week rather than daily, cycled 4-8 weeks with a 4-week break. Common practice, not trial-established.
- FDA separately confirms it has found no human exposure data on dihexa acetate.
- The original rat study used oral doses of 1.25 and 2.0 mg/kg per day. Those stay rat numbers here.
No published human study has ever given a person a dose of dihexa. This page gives the protocol clinic and vendor guides commonly describe and notes that no trial backs it. It then gives the only published dosing numbers: what the original rat studies used, reported as rat doses. For the fuller research record and legal status, see the main dihexa guide.
US legal status - Research use only
Dihexa has no FDA-approved product. FDA states it has not identified any human exposure data on drug products containing dihexa acetate by any route, and dihexa is not on the 503A Bulks List, so it is not currently eligible for lawful pharmacy compounding.
Dihexa dosage: the common protocol
Clinic and vendor dosing guides most often describe dihexa taken orally, starting around 10-20 mg and titrating up to 50-100 mg. The frequency is 1 to 3 times a week rather than daily, in cycles of roughly 4-8 weeks followed by a 4-week break. This is common practice, not a dose any trial or regulator has established. The sources checked agree it should not be dosed daily.
Common protocol
What is commonly used, not a dose established in trials. No regulator has set a dose for Dihexa.
- Dose
- 10-100 mg
- How often
- 1 to 3 times a week, not daily; sources describe starting around 10-20 mg and titrating up to 50-100 mg as tolerated
- Route
- By mouth
- Cycle length
- 4-8 weeks
- Break between cycles
- 4 weeks
- Timing
- Empty stomach, roughly 30 minutes before eating; oral capsule/powder, not by injection, per these sources.
Source upgrade pass (2026-09-27): dropped MyPeptideMatch, a direct competitor site the owner flagged for removal, and added Empire Medical Training's physician-CME page instead. Both remaining sources agree there is no human trial of dihexa at any dose - the CME page states outright that 'a reported dose is not a validated dose' and 'Dihexa has no human trial behind any figure,' and independently reports a similar 10-30mg oral range to the vendor source's 10-100mg. Dropping MyPeptideMatch also removed the only source recommending daily dosing and the longer 12-week cycle claim, so frequency and cycle length narrowed to what the remaining two sources actually state.
What the human record actually contains: nothing
As the main guide documents, a PubMed search for dihexa returns 18 records, and none is indexed under a clinical-trial publication type. FDA’s bulk drug substances safety-risk page goes further. It says FDA has not identified any human exposure data on drug products containing dihexa acetate, by any route.
There is no low dose, no conservative starting dose and no “researchers typically use” figure to report. None has been published or identified by any regulator.
Doses used in animal studies
The 2013 paper that introduced dihexa McCoy 2013 - McCoy AT, Benoist CC, Wright JW et al. Evaluation of metabolically stabilized angiotensin IV analogs as procognitive/antidementia agents. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2013;344(1):141-54., in the references below tested it in rats by three routes, in a model where scopolamine induces a memory deficit. It also ran a separate aged-rat experiment:
| What was tested | Rats | Dose | Route | Schedule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scopolamine-deficit model | Adult rats, water maze training | 0.1 or 1 nanomole | Intracerebroventricular | Once daily, 5 minutes before that day’s training, for 8 days |
| Scopolamine-deficit model | Adult rats, water maze training | 0.05, 0.25 or 0.50 mg/kg | Intraperitoneal | Once daily, before that day’s training, for 8 days |
| Scopolamine-deficit model | Adult rats, water maze training | 1.25 or 2.0 mg/kg | Oral (gavage) | Once daily, 5 minutes before that day’s training, for 8 days |
| Aged-rat model | 24-month-old Sprague-Dawley rats, mixed sex | 2 mg/kg per day | Oral (gavage) | Once daily for 8 days |
In the scopolamine model, the higher oral dose (2 mg/kg) fully reversed the scopolamine-induced water-maze deficit. The highest dose by each route (0.50 mg/kg intraperitoneal and 2.0 mg/kg oral) produced water-maze performance that did not differ from rats that never received scopolamine.
A separate pharmacokinetic arm gave adult rats 10 mg/kg dihexa intravenously to measure blood levels over time. That arm measured drug levels, not a behavioral dose-response.
What is not established
- No human dose exists, at any amount, route, frequency or duration. No published study has given dihexa to a person, and FDA has identified no human exposure data on it by any route.
- No human half-life is established. With no human exposure data, there is no absorption, distribution or clearance figure to build a dosing interval on.
- No human safety threshold is established. The rat studies did not report serious harm in the animals and doses tested. That is a statement about rats under monitored laboratory conditions, not a human safety finding. FDA states directly that it lacks the information to know whether dihexa would cause harm in people.
- The common protocol above is current practice, not a trial finding. It comes from clinic and vendor dosing guides, each recorded as a source, not from a human trial or a regulator.
How to reconstitute Dihexa
Turning a target amount into an injection volume depends on a specific vial’s concentration and diluent, which this page cannot know for any given vial. Working out that arithmetic changes nothing about the fact that no human dose is established. The dosage calculator handles concentration and draw-volume math. It does not supply or endorse a dose.
Who should not use it
No FDA-reviewed contraindication list exists, because dihexa has never gone through that review. FDA states that it lacks important information on any safety issues dihexa acetate raises, including whether it would cause harm if given to humans. There is no published data on pregnancy, breastfeeding, adolescents, or use alongside other medications, at any dose.
Dihexa side effects and risks
The central risk is the size of the gap in the data. No human trial has ever given anyone dihexa, and FDA says it has not identified human exposure data on it by any route. No human safety profile, half-life or dose exists at any level.
Material sold online as “dihexa” or “dihexa acetate” is a research chemical, not a pharmaceutical product. Nobody independently verifies its purity, concentration or identity before it reaches a buyer.
Related
- Dihexa: No Verifiable Human Trials
- Dosage calculator
- Peptides for cognitive health
- Are peptides safe?
Where to buy Dihexa for research
Each vendor is checked against my vendor checklist.
1.BioEdge Research Labs
5 mg capsules, 60 count
- No FDA warning letter found
- Names its testing lab
- Batch COAs published
Common questions
What is the usual dihexa dose?
Clinic and vendor dosing guides most often describe dihexa taken orally, starting around 10-20 mg and titrating up to 50-100 mg, 1 to 3 times a week rather than daily. Cycles run roughly 4-8 weeks with a 4-week break between them. That is common practice reported by dosing guides, not a dose established by any trial or regulator. No published human study has given dihexa to anyone, and FDA says it has not identified any human exposure data on dihexa acetate by any route. The sources I checked agree it should not be dosed daily.
What dose did the original dihexa studies use?
The 2013 paper that introduced dihexa gave rats doses by three routes. Intracerebroventricular doses were 0.1 or 1 nanomole, intraperitoneal doses 0.05, 0.25 or 0.50 mg/kg, and oral gavage doses 1.25 or 2.0 mg/kg per day. Each was given once daily for 8 days, in a model of scopolamine-induced memory deficit. A separate arm gave 24-month-old rats 2 mg/kg per day by oral gavage for 8 days. These are rat doses in specific experiments, not a human protocol.
Can the rat dose be converted into a human dose?
Not reliably, and this page will not do it. Body-surface-area conversion formulas exist for early drug development. Applying one here would produce a precise-looking human number for a compound FDA says it has no human exposure data on at all.
How do I work out reconstitution and injection volume?
That is arithmetic about a specific vial and diluent, not a dosing decision, and it does not change the fact that no human dose is established. The dosage calculator handles concentration and draw-volume math for whatever amount is being discussed. It does not supply or endorse a dose.
Who should not use dihexa, and what are the risks?
There is no published human study and FDA has identified no human exposure data of any kind. So there is no regulator-reviewed contraindication list and no human safety data on pregnancy, interactions or long-term use. Material sold as a research chemical also carries no regulator-verified purity, identity or concentration.
References (3 sources)
Bibliographic detail is fetched from PubMed, not written by me - so a citation here cannot drift from the paper it names. Study design comes from PubMed's own tags rather than my judgement.
- 1.McCoy AT, Benoist CC, Wright JW et al. Evaluation of metabolically stabilized angiotensin IV analogs as procognitive/antidementia agents. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2013;344(1):141-54.StudyPMID 23055539full text
- 2.Anon. Notice of Concern: McCoy AT, Benoist CC, Wright JW, Kawas LH, Bule-Ghogare JM, Zhu M, Appleyard SM, Wayman GA, and Harding JW (2013) Evaluation of Metabolically Stabilized Angiotensin IV Analogs as Procognitive/Antidementia Agents, J Pharmacol Exp Ther, 344: 141-154; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.112.199497. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2021;378(3):313.StudyPMID 34551989
- 3.FDA - Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding That May Present Significant Safety Risks. States FDA has not identified human exposure data on drug products containing dihexa acetate by any route of administration (content current as of 22 April 2026, checked 24 September 2026).- US Food and Drug Administrationregulatory