Mechanism of Action
Copper Delivery
Last updated
Carrying copper ions into tissue in a bound form. Copper is a required cofactor for enzymes involved in collagen cross-linking and antioxidant defence, but free copper is reactive and damaging. A copper-carrying peptide holds the ion in a stable complex, and that controlled delivery is the mechanism rather than the copper alone.
Why it matters here
Records here carry formulation consequences that pure signalling mechanisms do not. The complex has its own colour, stability and incompatibilities, so the vehicle and storage fields matter more than usual.
What it is not
A copper peptide is not a copper supplement, and the reported effects are attributed to the intact complex rather than to copper itself. The blue colour of these preparations comes from the complex and is not a purity or potency indicator, so reading depth of colour as strength is a mistake.
Also called
- copper carrier
- copper complex
- cu2+ delivery
- copper peptide activity
- copper tripeptide
- copper carrier peptide
Cu2+ is the copper ion in the oxidation state these complexes carry. Copper tripeptide describes the three-amino-acid carrier, not a separate mechanism.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.