SS31
SS-31
A synthetic tetrapeptide, D-Arg-2',6'-dimethyltyrosine-Lys-Phe-NH2, carrying alternating aromatic and basic residues. It does not act at a cell-surface receptor: the published mechanism is direct binding to cardiolipin in the inner mitochondrial membrane, which is unusual among the compounds tracked here.
SS-31 has 21 registered human studies on ClinicalTrials.gov, reaching phase 4, covering 1,869 planned or enrolled participants across the 20 studies that published a figure. An FDA-approved product contains SS-31 — FORZINITY (NDA215244). 200 papers naming it were published in the last ten years.
Collected 2026-08-02 from ClinicalTrials.gov and Drugs@FDA. Counts include only trials whose registered intervention names SS-31; the registry search is fuzzy, so every match is re-checked. None of this says whether SS-31 works or is safe.
FDA status
Approved
Human studies
21
Furthest phase
Phase 4
Papers, 10 yr
200
Readership
1,883
monthly average, Feb–Jul 2026
Tracking since 2026-07-29 · About this data
What has actually been tested in humans
An approved product exists
21
Registered human studies
Phase 4
Furthest phase reached
1,869
Planned or enrolled participants, across 20 studies that published a figure
Approved
FDA-approved product — FORZINITY
Registered means registered — not that the study finished, and not that it found anything. The grade is mechanical: it is computed from the registry and the FDA record alone, and it grades how much is known, never whether a compound is good or safe. Collected 2026-08-02 from ClinicalTrials.gov and Drugs@FDA. Check the query.
What SS-31 is, and what it has been studied for
SS-31 is classified by ChEMBL as a protein, and appears in trial registrations under MTP 131 and MTP-131. Its FDA substance identifier is 87GWG91S09.
Across 21 registered trials, it has been studied in Barth Syndrome, Mitochondrial Diseases, Primary Mitochondrial Disease and Heart Failure. A condition here is what a sponsor registered the trial under — it records what was investigated, not what was shown.
The trials were run by Stealth BioTherapeutics Inc. and David Marcinek among others. A named commercial sponsor means a compound is in formal development; its absence does not mean the opposite, only that no company has registered a trial under its own name.
How far it got
SS-31 reached Phase 4 across 21 registered trials.
An FDA-approved product contains SS-31. Approval covers a specific product for a specific use — it is not a verdict on the molecule.
Is anyone studying SS-31?
Papers published each year that name SS-31 in the title or abstract, with the clinical trials that started in the same year marked beneath. Ten calendar years.
| Year | Publications | Trials started | Complete year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 9 | 2 | Yes |
| 2018 | 14 | 0 | Yes |
| 2019 | 16 | 1 | Yes |
| 2020 | 17 | 0 | Yes |
| 2021 | 19 | 0 | Yes |
| 2022 | 27 | 2 | Yes |
| 2023 | 19 | 0 | Yes |
| 2024 | 27 | 1 | Yes |
| 2025 | 43 | 1 | Yes |
| 2026 | 35 | 1 | No |
200 papers and 8 registered trials between 2017 and 2026. A paper counts when “elamipretide” appears in its title or abstract — phrase-matched, so a paper mentioning the words separately is not counted. The total is a single query over the whole window, which is why it does not equal the bars added together: PubMed files a paper under both its electronic and its print publication date, so one paper can appear in two years. Publication volume measures scientific attention, not whether a compound works: a well-studied compound can be well-studied and ineffective. Sources: PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov · collected 2026-08-02.
Published research on SS-31
200 indexed papers name SS-31 in their title or abstract. These are the 8 PubMed ranks most relevant. Listing a paper is not a judgement about it, and none of these is summarised here — follow the link and read what it says.
- Elamipretide: A Review of Its Structure, Mechanism of Action, and Therapeutic Potential
- Elamipretide (SS-31) improves mitochondrial dysfunction, synaptic and memory impairment induced by lipopolysaccharide in mice
- Efficacy and Safety of Elamipretide in Individuals With Primary Mitochondrial Myopathy: The MMPOWER-3 Randomized Clinical Trial
- Elamipretide: First Approval
- Potential Therapeutic Candidates for Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)
- Genotype-specific effects of elamipretide in patients with primary mitochondrial myopathy: a post hoc analysis of the MMPOWER-3 trial
- Elamipretide Hydrochloride
- Long-term efficacy and safety of elamipretide in patients with Barth syndrome: 168-week open-label extension results of TAZPOWER
Collected 2026-08-02from PubMed, phrase-matched on “elamipretide” in title and abstract. Run the same search.
About SS-31
A synthetic tetrapeptide, D-Arg-2',6'-dimethyltyrosine-Lys-Phe-NH2, carrying alternating aromatic and basic residues. It does not act at a cell-surface receptor: the published mechanism is direct binding to cardiolipin in the inner mitochondrial membrane, which is unusual among the compounds tracked here.
- Also known as
- Elamipretide · MTP-131
Structure and mechanism only. Nothing above describes what this compound is for, and no dose appears anywhere on this page.
Reading on this compound
All articles →PepRack articles that reference this compound. This is not a news feed — we syndicate nothing and publish no datelines.
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