Pinealon
Glu-Asp-Arg Khavinson Pineal Tripeptide
Evidence grade 1 of 5, Untested. Read how the Atlas grades evidence.
Evidence for Pinealon (EDR, Glu-Asp-Arg) rests entirely on preclinical work from Khavinson-affiliated Russian laboratories: rat cerebellar granule cell, neutrophil and PC12 cultures (Khavinson et al., Rejuvenation Research 2011), aged-rat hypoxia and hypothermia behavioral models (Mendzheritsky et al., Advances in Gerontology 2015), plus literature reviews and in-silico gene-expression modeling for Alzheimer's pathways (Khavinson et al., Molecules 2020). There are no Western or independently replicated human randomized controlled trials, so animal-and-in-vitro-only grading of grade 1 is honest and the current grade 2 and the claim of 4 RCTs are both inflated.
- FDA
- Not FDA approved for any human indication; not on the FDA 503A/503B category 1 bulk drug substance compounding list. Sold research-use-only outside Russia.
- WADA
- Not listed on the WADA Prohibited List
Reference only. Not medical advice.
What can go wrong
Preclinical and unreplicated Russian evidence only; no Western human RCTs; unapproved research chemical of uncharacterized long-term human safety.
Talk to a clinician before taking this. The Atlas can tell you what has been studied about Pinealon. It cannot tell you how it would interact with your body, your history, or anything else you are taking, and nothing on this page is a reason to start.
A short synthetic Khavinson tripeptide targeting pineal function and neuronal protection. Russian data suggests sleep and cognitive benefits in aging.
What people take it for
These are the reasons people give for taking it. They are not effects it has been shown to have.
How it is supposed to work
Pinealon is a synthetic tripeptide (glutamic acid, aspartic acid, arginine) aimed at the brain, promoted for neuroprotection and cognitive support. In the bioregulator model it is proposed to influence gene expression in neural tissue, an idea that is biologically conceivable but unproven for this specific peptide in humans.
Pinealon is a synthetic tripeptide with the sequence glutamic acid, aspartic acid, arginine, one of the second-generation defined-sequence bioregulators. Despite both being linked to the pineal region, it is a different molecule from Epithalon and is positioned more for the brain and central nervous system than for the telomere story.
- Type
- Synthetic tripeptide
- Sequence
- Glu-Asp-Arg
- Target
- Brain and CNS
- Generation
- Second (defined)
- Evidence
- Preclinical and Russian
- Western RCT
- None
A Brain Bioregulator On The Same Single-Lab Evidence As Epithalon
Pinealon rests on exactly the same evidentiary footing as the rest of the Khavinson family, which is the single most important thing to understand about it. The proposed mechanism is the family’s signature and most contested claim: that these ultra-short peptides enter cell nuclei and interact directly with DNA to restore youthful gene expression in their target tissue, here the brain. That hypothesis is supported by a large body of publications from one research group but has not been established in mainstream Western molecular biology. The neuroprotection and cognition data are largely preclinical and Russian, from the originating lineage, with no independent blinded human trials. So Pinealon is a defined, plausibly interesting brain peptide whose entire case stands or falls with a body of work that has never been independently reproduced.
Safety in detail
Human safety is uncharacterized outside affiliated Russian use. Located data are animal, cell-culture, review, and in-silico; purity, dosing and long-term effects of vendor-supplied research material are not independently verified.
- Reported safety in decades of Russian clinical use is described as clean, with few serious adverse events, but that record comes largely from within the same research tradition that developed the peptides and has not been independently verified in Western trials.
- Long-term safety in rigorous, controlled human studies is essentially uncharacterized outside that tradition.
- Most material sold internationally is gray-market or supplement-grade, so unverified identity, dose and purity are the dominant practical risks.
- Not FDA-approved for any use; claims of disease treatment are not supported by Western regulatory review.
Children and teenagers
Pinealon has no validated pediatric use and is an unapproved injected peptide. There is no appropriate pediatric use.
What people get wrong
Nothing recorded here yet. There is almost certainly something people get wrong about this one, and the blank space means we have not written it down, not that the record is clean.
Who profits, and who pushes back
Nobody is named here yet, because we have not done that work on this entry. Read that as unfinished. Somebody almost certainly sells this, and somebody almost certainly disputes it. Assume both until we have checked.
Pinealon reaches users entirely through the international bioregulator gray market and longevity clinics that sell the Khavinson line. There is no approved product anywhere in the West. Its market runs on the family’s reputation rather than independent proof.
How we got here
Pinealon descends from the Khavinson peptide-bioregulator program at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, where synthetic short peptides were built from the amino-acid composition of animal-tissue extracts. Its pineal lineage traces to Epithalamin, the pineal-gland extract that also gave rise to the tetrapeptide Epitalon (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly); Pinealon is the tripeptide Glu-Asp-Arg (EDR) developed as a defined synthetic analog aimed at neuronal and cortical gene expression rather than a whole-gland extract. It is registered and sold in Russia as an oral capsule bioregulator and circulates across Western markets as a research-use-only peptide vial, with no FDA or EMA marketing approval.
Pinealon was developed as a defined-sequence second-generation bioregulator at the St. Petersburg institute, refining the brain-targeted strand of Khavinson’s program into a specific tripeptide alongside the cortex peptide Cortagen.
The numbers behind the grade
- Type
- Tripeptide (Glu-Asp-Arg)
- Target
- Brain / cognition
- Russia
- Bioregulator line
- FDA
- Not approved
- Evidence
- Preclinical/single-tradition
- Western RCTs
- None
The people taking it
A popular cognitive bioregulator in the longevity-stack community, often paired with the pineal peptide Epitalon.
Pinealon’s users are cognitive-longevity enthusiasts, the bioregulator-protocol community that runs organ-peptide courses, and biohackers building neuroprotection stacks.
Used as a nootropic and neuroprotective bioregulator, mainly by injection in longevity protocols. Evidence is preclinical and from the originating tradition.
Set against the alternatives
Pinealon is the brain-targeted sibling of Epithalon within the same system, and a defined-sequence counterpart to the older brain-extract drug Cortexin and the cortex peptide Cortagen, with which it is often stacked. Against a Russian synthetic neuropeptide like Semax, which at least has substantial Russian trial data, Pinealon’s human evidence is thinner and more preclinical. The shared frame across all of them is a single national research base that the wider world has not corroborated.
What we do not know
- Whether independent, Western randomized trials confirm any of the claimed clinical effects.
- Whether the proposed DNA-binding, gene-regulating mechanism actually operates in human tissue at the doses used.
- Why, after forty years and hundreds of papers, replication outside the originating institute remains so limited.
- Whether results from complex tissue extracts (Cytomaxes) translate to the defined synthetic peptides (Cytogens) sold alongside them.
Legal status
Not FDA-approved for any indication in the United States. Several related bioregulators are registered pharmaceuticals in Russia, where they are used clinically, but that approval does not carry to the US or EU. The first formal FDA advisory-committee evaluation of a Khavinson peptide (Epitalon) is scheduled for July 2026. Internationally it is sold as a Cytogen or Cytomax supplement and as a research chemical.
Status current as of July 2026. Regulatory positions change, sometimes quickly.
The market for this
What follows describes how this is bought and sold. It is not a buying guide and it is not an endorsement of any seller.
Available internationally as oral or injectable bioregulator supplements (Cytogen and Cytomax lines) and as research-use-only peptide vials, with legal status varying by country. None is an FDA-approved medicine, so there is no regulated US prescription route; the honest course is to treat the claims with caution and consult a clinician.
Material reaches international buyers two ways: as branded Cytogen (synthetic) or Cytomax (animal-tissue extract) supplements produced in Russia, and as research-use-only vials, much of it synthesized in China. Neither route guarantees the identity or potency the label claims, so an independent certificate of analysis is the only real check and is uncommon.
What this entry does not yet cover
What follows is unfinished work on our side, not a finding about Pinealon.
- Timeline. We have not built the dated record of research and regulatory events.
- Supply chain. We have not mapped where it is made.
- What could change. No forward-looking summary yet.
Sources
Pinealon (Glu-Asp-Arg) dose-dependently suppresses ROS accumulation and reduces necrotic death in rat cerebellar granule cells, neutrophils and PC12 cells, with evidence of direct genome interaction beyond antioxidant action
Khavinson et al., Rejuvenation Research 2011;14(5):535-41 (PMID 21978084)
EDR/Pinealon literature review proposing gene-expression and protein-synthesis mechanisms (ERK1/2, SOD2, GPx1, caspase-3, p53, PPARA/PPARG) relevant to Alzheimer's pathogenesis, drawn from animal and cell-culture data not human trials
Khavinson, Linkova, Kozhevnikova, Trofimova, Molecules 2020 (PMC7795577)
In 18-month aged rats under acute hypobaric hypoxia and mild hypothermia, Pinealon influenced adrenergic and serotonergic mediators and caspase-3, though it was less potent than Cortexin on free-radical processes
Mendzheritsky, Karantysh, Ryzhak, Prokofiev, Advances in Gerontology 2015 (PMID 28509493)
Neuroprotective effects of tripeptide epigenetic regulators tested in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (animal model, not human)
Pinealon situated within the Khavinson short-peptide bioregulator family, derived from the amino-acid composition of pineal-tissue peptide extracts (Epithalamin lineage) synthesized from the late 1990s at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology
Pinealon has no FDA-approved human indication and is not on the FDA 503A/503B category 1 bulk drug substance compounding list; sold under research-use-only labeling outside Russia
Pinealon is a synthetic Glu-Asp-Arg (EDR) tripeptide, the synthetic analog of an active pineal fragment, proposed to interact with CG-rich promoter regions and modulate circadian and neuroprotective gene expression in preclinical models
Overview of Epitalon (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly) as the pineal tetrapeptide derived from Epithalamin, establishing the pineal-extract origin of the Khavinson bioregulator family to which Pinealon belongs
Pinealon marketed as an oral capsule bioregulator and as a research-chemical vial, positioned for cognition, sleep and neuroprotection with preclinical-only backing
The studies that matter
Khavinson group studies2000s-2010s
Reported neuroprotective and cognitive effects in aged rodent models and cell systems.
Independent replicationlimited
Some in vitro interest in short brain-peptides exists, but independent clinical trials of Pinealon are absent.