Trinity compound research profile
VIP
VIP, short for Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide, is a 28-amino-acid peptide your body already makes naturally — it's not something invented in a lab from...
Research overview
VIP, short for Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide, is a 28-amino-acid peptide your body already makes naturally — it's not something invented in a lab from scratch. The man-made, purified drug version of it is called aviptadil (brand names Zyesami or RLF-100) (UniProt P01282). It belongs to a family of natural signaling molecules related to other gut/hormone peptides like glucagon.
Mechanism under study
VIP works by attaching to two related "docking stations" (receptors) called VPAC1 and VPAC2, found in your lungs, gut, immune cells, and blood vessels. When it attaches, it triggers effects like widening blood vessels (dropping blood pressure), relaxing airway muscles (helping you breathe easier), and calming down immune system overactivity (Mathioudakis et al.). It's actually about 100 times more powerful at relaxing airways than a common asthma medication, and about 50 times more powerful than a well-known blood-vessel-widening drug.
Human evidence summary
The most important human study is also a negative result: a large, well-designed trial (called TESICO) tested IV aviptadil in critically ill COVID-19 patients and found it did NOT improve outcomes or survival compared to placebo — the trial was actually stopped early because it clearly wasn't working (TESICO, Lancet Respir Med 2023). On the positive side, VIP combined with another drug (as "Invicorp") is an approved treatment for erectile dysfunction in parts of Europe (Invicorp SmPC). Smaller, less rigorous studies have looked at inhaled VIP for lung blood pressure problems and for calming immune overactivity in a lung disease called sarcoidosis, with some encouraging but preliminary results.
Preclinical evidence summary
This information isn't detailed as a separate category in the source data — the profile focuses primarily on human clinical and physiological findings rather than distinct animal studies.
Source material
Use the linked publications and records to evaluate study design, population, limitations, and relevance.