Home / Research library / DSIP
Compound guide
DSIP: what the research covers
Delta sleep-inducing peptide was named for an effect that later work struggled to reproduce consistently. Nine residues, isolated in 1977, and still without an identified receptor.
What DSIP is
DSIP is the nonapeptide Trp-Ala-Gly-Gly-Asp-Ala-Ser-Gly-Glu, isolated from the cerebral venous blood of rabbits in which slow-wave sleep had been induced electrically. The name records the original observation rather than a settled mechanism.
Nearly five decades later, no receptor has been identified. That is unusual and it is the single most important thing to know about the compound: without a receptor there is no binding assay, no selectivity profile and no structure-activity programme of the kind that organises the literature on, say, the growth hormone secretagogues. Proposed routes of action in the published work include modulation of other neuropeptide systems and effects on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal signalling, none of them established.
The sequence itself is small, highly acidic from two carboxylate side chains, and contains no residue that resists proteolysis, which is consistent with the very short half-life reported for it.
Reading a literature without a receptor
The sleep findings are genuinely mixed. Some studies report changes in slow-wave sleep architecture; others find no effect, and the inconsistency has not been resolved. A reader who encounters DSIP described as a reliable sleep agent is reading advocacy rather than the literature.
What is better supported, though still preliminary, is a stress-protective and homeostatic framing. Published strands cover stress models and corticosteroid responses, antinociception, reported effects on withdrawal states, and a thermoregulatory and metabolic set of observations. The authors who treat DSIP as a general modulator of adaptive responses rather than specifically as a sleep peptide are, on the available evidence, on firmer ground.
For comparison, VIP is the other circadian-relevant peptide in this catalogue, and it has exactly what DSIP lacks: identified receptors, a defined signalling pathway and a genetic literature.
How Amino Club supplies it
DSIP is supplied lyophilised in sealed vials as DSIP and as a metered DSIP Nasal Spray, specified at 99% purity or better by HPLC with identity confirmed by mass spectrometry and released against the batch Certificate of Analysis. The lab testing page sets out the release sequence.
Given how much of the published inconsistency has been attributed to preparation quality, batch documentation is doing more work here than usual: a negative result obtained with uncharacterised material tells you very little. The powder is stored below −18 °C and solutions prepared in small volumes, kept cold and not held. Diluents are listed under reconstitution supplies.
Related reading
DSIP sits in the cognitive and sleep research peptides group with Semax, Selank and Dihexa, and its rhythm literature overlaps VIP.
Every guide is indexed in the research library. Certificates and storage are covered on the FAQ, quantity pricing through bulk and wholesale.
Research use only
DSIP supplied by Amino Club is a laboratory reference material. It is not a medicine, not a supplement, and not for human or veterinary use, and no dosing guidance or administration protocol is provided. The full terms are in the research use policy.