AntiAging Research Mail List & Discussion Group

[Sales] The
"Polymer Matrix"
Formula

FACT OR FRAUD? [Research]

These are known scientific facts regarding HGH/Human Growth Hormone:

"HGH is large, fragile protein molecule with a molecular weight of 20,000. It contains 191 amino acids in an exact sequence. Its only source is from human genes, using very expensive and meticulous recombinant DNA technology.

USING PATENTED TECHNOLOGY, THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY HAS DEVELOPED WAYS TO PARTIALLY ABSORB SOME DRUGS THROUGH THE SKIN. BUT ONLY FOR SMALL, NON-PROTEIN MOLECULES. INSULIN IS A PROTEIN MOLECULE ONLY HALF AS LARGE AS HGH. IF IT WERE POSSIBLE TO ABSORB THAT KIND OF HORMONE BY MOUTH, BY SPRAY, OR THROUGH MEMBRANES, MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WITH DIABETES WOULD NOT NEED TO TAKE INSULIN BY INJECTION. THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS SPENT ON RESEARCH TO DO JUST THAT HAS BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL.

A protein molecule that large cannot penetrate intact membranes to any significant degree. Most would be wasted if it were used in a nasal spray or orally. Manufacturing costs are high. HGH is so expensive that any waste is prohibitively expensive.

The HGH molecule loses potency very rapidly when dissolved in solution. The molecule is folded and twisted on itself repeatedly. Activity in the body depends on fragile cross linkages between branches of this very large molecule, which hold it in an exact three-dimensional configuration. It works on cell receptors exactly like a key in a lock. Any change in shape blocks HGH activity, even if the chemical formula remains exactly the same. Those cross-linkages break very easily and become unstable soon after dissolving in solution. Only with refrigeration can biological activity be maintained for up to two weeks. That's how fragile the molecule is. How then could activity be maintained in a liquid spray?

For storage and shipping, HGH must be very carefully freeze-dried under a vacuum to become a powder. Even the powder must also be kept refrigerated to maintain activity for more than a few months. Very large pharmaceutical companies with research budgets in the billions of dollars have not been able to solve that problem.

Dr. Elmer M. Cranton, MD - Mt. Rogers Clinic, Inc.

None of the companies selling various HGH products have disputed these facts. In fact, they acknowledge the problems associated with the oral delivery of Human Growth Hormone, and address the issue in this way:

"BioGevity contains a microdilution of biologically active and bioavailable growth hormone encapsulated in a specialized polymer matrix to protect the growth hormone as it is absorbed through the oral mucosa (the mouth). The polymer matrix is essential because it enables the growth hormone molecule - normally too large to penetrate the oral mucosa by merit of its 191 bulky amino acids - to elongate and squeeze through oral membrane. This matrix allows the hormone to remain intact as it is absorbed into the circulatory system."

BioGevity

We have asked publicly for any of the above companies to provide us with any information they might have regarding the mysterious "polymer matrix formula", but not a single company has responded with any information whatsoever. We have written directly to several of the companies requesting any conceivable explanation or scientific data which would explain in even the vaguest theoretical terms how this "polymer matrix formula" defies the rules of all known science, but have gotten no response.

We then went outside the network marketing loop, seeking out other companies, scientists, schools, labs, and universities which might have knowledge of or experience with this exotic HGH hormone delivery system.

Here are excerpts from some of the correspondence we have received:

I am not aware of any system that can do this. There may be enhancers available in someone's research that has not been published or put into a patent. The oral spray product could be a fine powder that is absorbed.

Dr. Peck
Purdue University

I think most of what you are hearing is marketing. Someone would have to show hard evidence that any large molecule like HGH gets through the GI tract and I have not seen it.

Dr. Robert Langer
MIT

I have on occasion read about polymer matrix systems which can deliver relatively large protein molecules, but I lack the knowledge to tell you whether such molecules can be delivered directly into the blood stream without damage to the molecule. I have not heard of a sublingual delivery system, but this certainly does not mean that they don't exist.

As for a chewable tablet, again I don't really know. The stomach can certainly absorb proteins, but I guess, based on what you describe, that the digestive system would damage your fragile HGH molecule, unless it was protected in some way. I would have thought that anything released directly into the mouth would be swallowed before it had time to be absorbed.

If the products you describe are "real" pharmaceuticals, I would also have thought that they would have undergone properly controlled medical trials and studies, which would have been published in the appropriate medical journals.

Dr. Paul Steward

We found a couple of relevant and interesting research papers or reports on the general topic of polymer drug delivery systems, but they all dealt with either the controlled release of a substance or were a means of protecting the drug until it arrived at the required site. We were unable to locate any scientific references to the use of polymers in delivering large molecule substances through otherwise inaccessible sites.

Polymers have gained in importance in the pharmaceutical industry as both drug encapsulants and vehicles of drug carriage: either protecting an active agent during its passage through the body (or in storage by preventing moisture ingress [Udeala & Aly (1989)]) until its release, or controlling its release. A conventional (e.g., sugar) tablet coating has the disadvantageous side effect of delivering what may be an initially too high and, hence, harmful, dose of active agent (typically, drug is rapidly released from its dosage form, reaching a maximum concentration, which then decays exponentially until the next administration), to regions of the body where the drug may not be at its most effective; when the general aim of any medication is to generate a response in a specific area or organ of the body requiring treatment.

Review of Pharmaceutical Controlled Release Methods and Devices.

This article looked promising at first, and seemed to be headed in the right direction:

Professor Langer found that if you put a protein in the polymer matrix in a certain way, it leaves behind pores that would allow even the biggest molecules to pass through. What's more, with a little jiggering, you could get the molecules to pass through when they were needed.

Langer reviews polymer drug-delivery work in Killian Lecture

But as we read on, it soon became obvious that this research did not deal with the type of large molecule sublingual delivery which these HGH products were claiming to use.

We also found a few other references which were extremely interesting and educational regarding the use of polymers for controlled drug delivery, but nothing even remotely relevant to the delivery of "growth hormone encapsulated in a specialized polymer matrix to protect the growth hormone as it is absorbed through the oral mucosa (the mouth)."

Synthetic Biodegradable Polymers as Medical Devices

Polymers in Controlled Drug Delivery

New oral insulin delivery system shows promise

Modeling Controlled Release of Drugs from Polymer Devices

Dr. Langer's research dealt with the safe delivery and controlled release of large molecule drugs to various parts of the body, not the use of polymers to slip large HGH molecules through normally unavailable sites. Later correspondence with Dr. Langer confirmed this. Another article discussed some of the developments in this field over the past 25 years:

Since Langer began his work in 1974, genetic engineering has made possible larger and larger macromolecule drugs, such as growth hormones and proteins, which cannot be taken orally and must therefore be injected. Injections, however, release drugs into the bloodstream immediately, and many patients are phobic to needles. Langer found that hydrophobic polymers made it possible to deliver macromolecular drugs like albumin into the body and at a controlled rate over a period of time.

Biomaterials Are Transforming Medicine

Polymer Matrix Formula - Fact or Fraud?

This is the evidence available to all of us. We're going to continue doing additional research and contacting experts in the field. We'll also continue to contact manufacturers, distributors, and scientists associated with these various human growth products and give them additional opportunities to present their side of the story. But after two months of nothing but silence, our considered opinion at this point in time is that the "polymer matrix formula" is a myth, a fraud, and a scam, right up there with the "Laundry CD" and its infamous "structured water".

And if the polymer matrix formula is simply another version of the "Emperor's New Clothes", then any and all of the products claiming to contain and deliver any version of human growth hormone are also scams!

And we think it's about time that
somebody stands up in this crowd and says so!

Your comments and opinions are welcomed.
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