Origins
When was KPV first studied?
KPV is not a designed compound and has no discovery event. It is the last three residues of a hormone that has been known since the 1950s.
The short answer
| Date | The 1980s and 1990s |
| Who | Multiple groups; no single originator |
| Where | Various |
| Origin | Derived from a larger natural molecule, then made synthetically. |
Where it came from
Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone is thirteen residues long. KPV is residues 11 to 13 of it: lysine, proline, valine. There was no moment at which it was invented, because it was already there — interest in the tripeptide grew out of work through the 1980s and 1990s asking which part of the hormone was responsible for which activity.
That makes it the odd one out on this page. Every other entry has a year, a group and a publication. KPV has a parent molecule and a body of work, and an honest answer to when it was created is that it was not created.
It also sits in the same family as Melanotan I, Melanotan II and PT-141, all of which derive from the same hormone — a family related by parent molecule rather than by any shared programme.
Why it is called that
The one-letter codes for lysine, proline and valine. The name is the sequence.
Where it stands now
KPV has not been approved as a medicine anywhere and has no international nonproprietary name.
What this page does not say
Nothing above is a statement about what KPV does in a body, and none of it is guidance on use. A compound’s history is a record of laboratories and dates; it is not evidence for anything, and the fact that a programme was looking for something is not a finding that it was found.
