The bibliography
The negative sepsis trial deserves company on the shelf with the more exciting findings.
Sepsis, repair and metabolism
For the central sepsis argument, the useful pair is ETASS followed by TESTS. Their different findings are the reason the thymosin alpha-1 essay spends so much time on that indication.
For BPC-157, the vessel-growth experiment and the musculoskeletal review show the distance between a mechanistic proposal and the human record. For retatrutide, the receptor study sits beside the obesity trial and the diabetes trial. I prefer pairing these very different papers to an easy claim about boosting.
The full list follows: seventeen journal papers spanning clinical trials, laboratory work and reviews. Their inclusion gives the arguments a source, rather than a uniform endorsement of every conclusion.
- Katsi V, Koutsopoulos G, Fragoulis C, Dimitriadis K, Tsioufis K. Retatrutide-A Game Changer in Obesity Pharmacotherapy. Biomolecules. 2025;15:796. ↗
- Li W, Zhou Q, Cong Z, Yuan Q, Li W, Zhao F, Xu HE, Zhao LH, Yang D, Wang MW. Structural insights into the triple agonism at GLP-1R, GIPR and GCGR manifested by retatrutide. Cell Discovery. 2024;10:77. ↗
- Sanyal AJ, Kaplan LM, Frias JP, Brouwers B, Wu Q, Thomas MK, Harris C, Schloot NC, Du Y, Mather KJ, Haupt A, Hartman ML. Triple hormone receptor agonist retatrutide for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: a randomized phase 2a trial. Nature Medicine. 2024;30:2037-2048. ↗
- Jastreboff AM, et al. Triple-Hormone-Receptor Agonist Retatrutide for Obesity - A Phase 2 Trial. N Engl J Med. 2023;389(6):514-526. ↗
- Rosenstock J, et al. Retatrutide, a GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon receptor agonist, for people with type 2 diabetes: a randomised, double-blind, placebo and active-controlled, parallel-group, phase 2 trial. Lancet. 2023;402(10401):529-544. ↗
- Urva S, Coskun T, Loh MT, Du Y, Thomas MK, Gurbuz S, Haupt A, Benson CT, Hernandez-Illas M, D'Alessio DA, Milicevic Z. LY3437943, a novel triple GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon receptor agonist in people with type 2 diabetes: a phase 1b, multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, multiple-ascending dose trial. Lancet. 2022;400:1869-1881. ↗
- Pearson MJ, et al. Retatrutide And Lipid And Metabolite Profiles In Participants With Obesity With Or Without Type 2 Diabetes. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism. 2026. ↗
- Lee E, Burgess K. Safety of Intravenous Infusion of BPC157 in Humans: A Pilot Study. Altern Ther Health Med. 2025. ↗
- McGuire FP, et al. Regeneration or Risk? A Narrative Review of BPC-157 for Musculoskeletal Healing. Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med. 2025. ↗
- He L, et al. Pharmacokinetics, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of body-protective compound 157, a potential drug for treating various wounds, in rats and dogs. Front Pharmacol. 2022;13:1026182. ↗
- Hsieh MJ, et al. Therapeutic potential of pro-angiogenic BPC157 is associated with VEGFR2 activation and up-regulation. J Mol Med (Berl). 2017;95:323-333. ↗
- Xue XC, et al. Protective effects of pentadecapeptide BPC 157 on gastric ulcer in rats. World J Gastroenterol. 2004;10:1032-1037. ↗
- Wu J, Pei F, Zhou L, et al. The efficacy and safety of thymosin alpha1 for sepsis (TESTS): multicentre, double blinded, randomised, placebo controlled, phase 3 trial. BMJ. 2025. ↗
- Dominari A, Hathaway Iii D, Pandav K, et al. Thymosin alpha 1: A comprehensive review of the literature. World J Virol. 2020. ↗
- Liu Y, Pan Y, Hu Z, et al. Thymosin Alpha 1 Reduces the Mortality of Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 by Restoration of Lymphocytopenia and Reversion of Exhausted T Cells. Clin Infect Dis. 2020. ↗
- Costantini C, Bellet MM, Pariano M, et al. A Reappraisal of Thymosin Alpha1 in Cancer Therapy. Front Oncol. 2019. ↗
- Wu J, Zhou L, Liu J, et al. The efficacy of thymosin alpha 1 for severe sepsis (ETASS): a multicenter, single-blind, randomized and controlled trial. Crit Care. 2013. ↗