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Explore  /  Noopept (Omberacetam)

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Noopept (Omberacetam)

C

lead outcome

Cognitive impairment / MCI (vascular,…

grades vary by outcome ↓

Small molecule (non-peptide)

also called — Noopept · GVS-111 · omberacetam · N-phenylacetyl-L-prolylglycine ethyl ester. INCI: none

nootropic / cognitiveneuroprotectionBDNF/NGF (approved in Russia: cognitive disorders)

Reference entry — not sold here. Like Semax (#41) and Selank (#42), an approved nootropic in Russia — and the oral one. No dosing published here.

In brief

Noopept is a dipeptide-derived small molecule (not a classical peptide, despite the ubiquitous label) developed in Russia and approved there as an oral nootropic. It's a prodrug of the endogenous dipeptide cycloprolylglycine, raises BDNF/NGF, and is ~1000× more potent by weight than piracetam. Its strongest evidence is in people with existing cognitive deficits (vascular/traumatic) via Russian trials; the popular healthy-enhancement use and any Western evidence are thin, and it is not FDA-approved. Its practical edge over Semax/Selank is simply that it's oral.

Legal standing, by region

European Union

Not approved

not approved.

United States

Not FDA-approved (gray-market)

Not FDA-approved. Sold as an unregulated "supplement" or research chemical (a legal gray area — the FDA does not recognise it as a lawful dietary ingredient, yet it's widely sold).

International

approval limited to Russia/CIS

approval limited to Russia/CIS.

Evidence, by outcome

How we grade →

An honest grade per outcome — drawn from the evidence, not any catalogue. Hype and undemonstrated marketing claims grade low.

OutcomeEvidence base · effectGrade

Cognitive impairment / MCI (vascular, traumatic — approved Russian use)

Strongest use, but Russian-only, no Western replication; methodology varies from FDA/EMA standards

Russian RCTs (Neznamov & Teleshova 2009, vs piracetam) + EEG studies · Improved memory / cognition

C

BDNF/NGF & neuroprotection mechanism

Animal/mechanistic; human translation is Russian-only

Substantial preclinical (Ostrovskaya, Gudasheva) · Neurotrophic; multi-target

B

Cognitive enhancement in healthy adults (the popular use)

Weaker than the cognitive-deficit use — the inverse of how it's marketed

Extrapolated + anecdotal · Suggestive

D

Anti-amyloid / Alzheimer's

Preclinical

Cellular/animal models (Jia 2011; Ostrovskaya 2014) · Suggestive

D

Anxiolytic

Early

Preclinical (cPG) + some Russian data · Suggestive

D

Safety

Mild (irritability, sleep changes, headache in some); long-term / Western data limited

Approved drug (Russia), oral, broad use · Generally well tolerated

—

Disclosure

Vallydia sells its own cosmetic serums, and some ingredients graded here belong to the same categories as those products. Grades are drawn from the published evidence by the method we publish, and applied to our own ingredients on the same terms — our copper-peptide serum is graded no more kindly than the peptides it competes with. We disclose the interest so you can weigh it.

Trade names shown here (for example Matrixyl, Argireline, Syn-Ake) are the property of their respective owners and are used only to identify the ingredient under discussion. Their appearance implies no affiliation with, or endorsement by, the proprietor.

Evidence changes

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Identity

a synthetic dipeptide-derived small molecule built on a Pro-Gly core, designed as a dipeptide analog of the racetam nootropic piracetam. It is a prodrug of cycloprolylglycine (cPG) — an endogenous cyclic dipeptide naturally present in the mammalian brain — which is its main active metabolite. Crucially, it is orally bioavailable and crosses the blood-brain barrier after being swallowed.

Development & history

Designed in 1996 at the V.V. Zakusov Research Institute of Pharmacology (Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow) by Tatiana Gudasheva, Sergei Seredenin and colleagues — as a dipeptide analog of piracetam (the hypothesis: piracetam's pyrrolidine ring mimics a proline residue and its N-acetamide mimics glycine).
The result was active at ~1000× lower doses than piracetam by weight (~ vs ~) with a broader cognitive + anxiolytic + neuroprotective profile. (Note: the "1000×" reflects potency and mechanism, not 1000× the benefit — a common misreading.)
Approved and prescribed in Russia (and neighbouring countries) as a nootropic/neuroprotective medicine.

Mechanism (as proposed)

Noopept is hydrolysed and cyclised to cycloprolylglycine (cPG), an endogenous neuropeptide that modulates AMPA glutamate receptors (key to synaptic transmission and long-term potentiation). It also upregulates BDNF and NGF in the hippocampus (the same neurotrophic theme as Semax/Selank), with cholinergic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and HIF-1-mediated (hypoxia-neuroprotective) effects reported. The mechanism is complex, not fully elucidated, and distinct from the classical racetams.

Chemical identifiers

Cross-reference identifiers for the authoritative external databases — not a recipe, and nothing about how to use it.

PubChem CID180496

InChIKeyPJNSMUBMSNAEEN-AWEZNQCLSA-N

SMILESCCOC(=O)CNC(=O)[C@@H]1CCCN1C(=O)CC2=CC=CC=C2

UNII4QBJ98683M

ChEMBLCHEMBL4303687

via PubChem exact-name match (Noopept) · high confidence

Sources — 4 cited

01Gudasheva TA, et al. (Major brain metabolite of GVS-111 = cyclo-L-prolylglycine; similarity to an endogenous neuropeptide.) Eur J Drug Metab Pharmacokinet. 1997.

02Ostrovskaya RU, et al. Noopept stimulates NGF and BDNF expression in rat hippocampus. Bull Exp Biol Med. 2008; (neuroprotection in an AD cellular model — apoptosis/tau). J Biomed Sci. 2014.

03Neznamov GG, Teleshova ES. Comparative studies of Noopept and piracetam in mild cognitive disorders of vascular and traumatic origin. Neurosci Behav Physiol. 2009.

04Vakhitova YV, et al. (HIF-1 as a primary molecular mechanism of the Pro-Gly dipeptide Noopept.) 2016; Jia X, et al. (Noopept rescues α-synuclein amyloid cytotoxicity.) J Mol Biol. 2011.

Updated 2026-07-11

Grades reflect the published evidence, not our interest. No dosing, reconstitution, or administration is published for research compounds — that restraint is deliberate.

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