Pinealon

What Pinealon is

Pinealon is a synthetic tripeptide, Glu-Asp-Arg (EDR), one of a family of two- to four-residue peptides developed by Vladimir Khavinson and colleagues at the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. The series was derived from the amino-acid composition of tissue peptide extracts, and Pinealon is named for the pineal gland; the group proposes that such short peptides act by binding to DNA in gene promoter regions and altering gene expression, a mechanism based largely on molecular modelling. It is water-soluble and is supplied here as a lyophilized (freeze-dried) powder for laboratory research.

What the research examines

Oxidative stress in cells. Cell-culture studies measured reactive oxygen species, cell viability, necrosis and proliferation markers in rat cerebellar granule cells and other cell types exposed to Pinealon under oxidative challenge, and reported lower free-radical levels and higher viability in treated cultures. Rat studies of prenatal hyperhomocysteinaemia examined similar oxidative markers in the brains of offspring.

Neuronal gene expression. Studies in cultured cortical cells and neuronal cell lines measured serotonin immunoreactivity and the expression of genes linked to neuronal differentiation and cell-cycle control, using immunofluorescence and computational docking of the tripeptide to DNA. The proposed direct peptide-DNA interaction rests on in-silico models and has not been confirmed by independent groups.

Models of neurodegeneration. An in-vitro model of Alzheimer's disease in hippocampal neurons and the 5xFAD transgenic mouse measured dendritic spine density, amyloid-related markers and behavioural tests after exposure to Pinealon and the related tripeptide KED, and reported partial restoration of spine numbers and changes in some behavioural measures relative to untreated controls.

All published work on Pinealon comes from one research group and its collaborators, and much of it appears in Russian-language journals or their translated editions; independent replication is lacking. The studies are limited to cell cultures and rodents, with no controlled human trial in the indexed literature. Pinealon is not an approved medicine, and this page makes no claims about effects in humans.

Selected literature

• Khavinson V, et al. Rejuvenation Research, 2011, cell-culture study. doi:10.1089/rej.2011.1172
• Khavinson VKh, et al. Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2014, cell-culture study (translated Russian journal). doi:10.1007/s10517-014-2496-y
• Kraskovskaya NA, et al. Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2017, in-vitro neurodegeneration model. doi:10.1007/s10517-017-3847-2
• Khavinson V, et al. Pharmaceuticals, 2021, transgenic mouse model. doi:10.3390/ph14060515

Every reference is listed with its DOI in the research library.

Handling in the laboratory

Store sealed at 2–8 °C for routine use or frozen for long-term storage, protected from light and moisture. Let the vial reach room temperature before opening. See Storage and handling of lyophilized research peptides.