A three-amino-acid synthetic peptide from Russia's Khavinson group, studied mainly in rat brains and neuron cultures for oxidative stress.
Also called EDR peptide, Glu-Asp-Arg, Glutamyl-aspartyl-arginine
Pinealon is three amino acids: glutamic acid, aspartic acid, arginine, usually written EDR. It comes from Vladimir Khavinson's St. Petersburg institute, the same group behind Epitalon, and it is one of the short peptides they call cytogens. The name suggests a pineal peptide, but the research is about the brain: neurons under low oxygen, oxidative stress, and models of Alzheimer's disease.
The best data are from rodents and cell culture. In mouse hippocampal neurons exposed to amyloid, the Alzheimer's protein, EDR brought the number of mature mushroom-shaped dendritic spines back up by 71 percent. In rats, pinealon given to pregnant mothers with high homocysteine produced offspring that did better on a spatial learning test and had neurons that held up better against oxidative stress.
Human data are a handful of small Russian studies in truck drivers, workers in hazardous jobs, and 32 people with organic brain syndrome. They often gave pinealon together with other peptides such as Vesugen, used questionnaires or biological age scores, and did not use placebo groups that we could verify. There is no controlled trial showing that pinealon improves memory, mood, or any brain disease in people.
What it binds to, and what happens inside the body after that, step by step.
Pinealon lowers the buildup of reactive oxygen species in cultured neurons, immune cells, and PC12 cells, and reduces cell death in those cultures. The developers also propose that it enters the nucleus and binds DNA promoter regions to change gene activity, based on molecular docking and cell expression studies. No receptor has been identified and none of these mechanisms has been measured in a living human brain.
Human results and animal results are kept apart below. A result in rats tells you a mechanism is plausible. It does not tell you what happens in a person.
In people, pinealon has only small studies from the developers' network, usually combined with other peptides and measured with questionnaires or biological age scores. The specific findings, such as 71 percent more dendritic spines and better maze learning, are from mouse neurons and rats. Calling it a proven nootropic overstates the data by a wide margin.
32 adults aged 41 to 83 with organic brain syndrome in remission
Authors reported slower biological age markers with Pinealon and Vesugen, with Vesugen stronger; they also saw pro-oxidant activity and lower CD34+ blood stem cell markers.
Read the studySurvey of 150 male truck drivers and 150 metal workers; the number given peptides is not stated in the abstract
Peptide courses, best when pinealon was combined with Vesugen, were reported to improve psychoemotional scores; group assignment and blinding are not described in the abstract.
Read the studyPrimary mouse hippocampal neurons exposed to amyloid
EDR at 200 ng/ml raised mushroom spine counts by 71 percent, back to normal levels; the related KED peptide raised them by 20 percent.
Read the study5xFAD Alzheimer's model mice
EDR and KED prevented dendritic spine loss; docking placed EDR on promoters of CASP3, APOE, SOD2, PPARA, and PPARG.
Read the studyRat cerebellar granule cells, neutrophils, and PC12 cells
Dose-dependent drop in reactive oxygen species and necrotic cell death under oxidative stress.
Read the studyPregnant rats fed excess methionine and their offspring
Offspring of treated mothers learned a spatial task better, and their cerebellar neurons had less oxidative damage and fewer necrotic cells.
Read the studyNeurons made from skin fibroblasts of elderly human donors
EDR increased dendrite branching and reduced oxidative DNA damage; it did not change mitochondrial activity, lysosomes, or p16 levels.
Read the studyThese are questions the published research has not answered.
No product containing Pinealon is approved as a medicine by the FDA.
Not approved as a drug by FDA, EMA, or any regulator we could verify. Russian publications describe it as a cytogen used in preventive medical nutrition, which is a supplement-style framework rather than drug approval. Not named on the WADA list, but falls under S0 (non-approved substances), banned in and out of competition.
No human half-life has been published for Pinealon, so we do not draw a clearance curve. Half-lives quoted online for it are usually estimates from animal data.
No human study or approved label has published a dose for Pinealon, so there is no table to show.
No dose of Pinealon has been tested in a published human study or approved on a label. Numbers that circulate online come from animal studies scaled up by guesswork or from sellers. We do not reproduce them.
Which symptoms are expected and which mean stop and get help: side effects and red flags.
Tap a claim to see what the studies found.
Memory gains were seen in rats. Human reports used questionnaires and biological age scores in small uncontrolled groups, often with other peptides added.
It protected dendritic spines in amyloid-exposed mouse neurons and in 5xFAD mice. No human Alzheimer's study exists.
This comes from molecular docking and gene expression in cell culture. It has not been shown in human tissue.
Despite the name, it is a synthetic tripeptide studied mainly in brain cells, not a pineal hormone, and it is a different molecule from Epitalon.
These pairings come up often. Almost none have been tested together in a trial, and the evidence note on each says so plainly.
Russian occupational medicine studies paired a brain-directed peptide with a vessel-directed one.
EvidenceStudied in small Russian groups with questionnaire and biological age outcomes; no placebo-controlled trial.
No published stability study. Labs generally keep freeze-dried peptides frozen at about -20 C, dry and away from light.
No published stability data in solution. Labs typically refrigerate solutions and use them promptly.
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