Epithalon

Both are short synthetic bioregulator peptides from the same St Petersburg programme. Epithalon is the tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly, designed from the pineal extract Epithalamin, and its literature centres on telomerase and ageing in mice. Pinealon is the tripeptide Glu-Asp-Arg, and its literature leans towards neuroprotection and antioxidant endpoints. Both literatures come mostly from one research cluster, with little outside replication. They are not interchangeable. A design built on the telomere work needs Epithalon; one built on the neuroprotection work needs Pinealon.

Epithalon, also written Epitalon, is a synthetic tetrapeptide with the sequence Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly (AEDG), molecular formula C₁₄H₂₂N₄O₉, molecular weight 390.35 g/mol and CAS number 307297-39-8. It was developed at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology by the group of Vladimir Khavinson as a synthetic tetrapeptide modelled on the active component of Epithalamin, a polypeptide preparation extracted from bovine pineal glands. The design is deliberately minimal — a four-residue peptide small enough to enter cells without a transporter — which sits at the centre of the research programme's proposal that short peptide bioregulators interact with DNA regulatory regions and influence gene expression.

The best-characterised strand of research is the telomere work. Khavinson, Bondarev and Butyugov (Bull Exp Biol Med, 2003) reported that addition of the peptide to cultures of telomerase-negative human fetal fibroblasts induced expression of the telomerase catalytic subunit, restored measurable telomerase activity, and increased mean telomere length by roughly one third. Companion work from the same group reported increased proliferative activity in retinal and pigmented epithelial cells. Recent independent in-vitro studies in additional human cell lines have reported telomere elongation through both telomerase upregulation and the alternative lengthening of telomeres pathway, with longer incubations required in normal cells than in telomerase-positive lines — a slow, early replication effort rather than a settled finding.

A second strand covers ageing and lifespan. Anisimov and colleagues (Biogerontology, 2003) treated female Swiss-derived SHR mice and reported no change in mean lifespan alongside a 13.3% extension of the lifespan of the last 10% of survivors and a 12.3% extension of maximum lifespan, and the same group reported inhibition of dimethylhydrazine-induced colon carcinogenesis in rats (Cancer Lett, 2002). The pineal and circadian strand runs mostly through the parent preparation Epithalamin, from which Epithalon was designed: Korkushko and colleagues (Bull Exp Biol Med, 2004) reported that epithalamin raised nocturnal plasma melatonin and partially restored its circadian rhythm in elderly subjects.

The honest position, stated plainly: the evidence base is predominantly Russian-language, originates largely from one affiliated research cluster, rests on small sample sizes, and has sparse independent Western replication. Epithalon holds no marketing authorisation in any jurisdiction and is not an approved medicine. UK Peptide Lab supplies it as lyophilised powder, supplier-tested, batch UKPL-9501 at 98.5% purity by HPLC with the certificate published on the product page. Supplied for in-vitro laboratory research use only, not for human consumption.