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bioregulator · nootropic

Pinealon

Also known as: EDR, Glu-Asp-Arg, glutamyl-aspartyl-arginine, T-33 peptide

Observational draft

A synthetic tripeptide (Glu-Asp-Arg) from the Khavinson cytogen series, presented as a neuroprotective and pineal-derived bioregulator. It is the family's clearest counter-example to the folk heuristic that these peptides are built around lysine: Pinealon contains no lysine at all. Its literature is small — 22 PubMed records — and is dominated by rodent hypoxia work and cell-culture antioxidant assays from one collaboration. The one human report indexed as a clinical trial gave the peptide in combination with another and measured occupational questionnaires.

Sequence
EDR

Glu-Asp-Arg · 3 residues · 418.41 Da (computed)

Contains no lysine.

single source C15H26N6O8 418.40 Da (published)

Sequence source: PubChem CID 10273502, synonyms 'Glu-Asp-Arg' and 'L-Glutamyl-L-aspartyl-L-arginine'; composition gate matched C15H26N6O8 / 418.4 Da. PMIDs 21978084 and 22117547 print 'pinealon (Glu-Asp-Arg)' in their own abstracts, but both list Khavinson as an author, so they are not independent of each other and the status stays single_source.

Khavinson lineage

Bioregulator context

Target tissue: pineal gland and brain neurons (nervous)

That a three-residue peptide can protect neurons against hypoxic and oxidative injury, restore age-related decline in brain function, and do so by entering the nucleus and binding DNA at sequence-specific sites rather than by acting on a receptor.

Proposed to penetrate the cell and nuclear membranes intact and bind DNA preferentially at CNG and CAG-containing sequences, thereby altering expression of genes controlling apoptosis and antioxidant defence. The supporting work is fluorescence quenching against labelled oligonucleotides plus microscopy of labelled peptide in HeLa cells.

Claimed vs established

Mechanism

Claimed

Protects brain neurons from hypoxia and oxidative stress, improves memory and learning, and slows brain ageing by directly regulating gene expression.

Actually established

Reduced reactive-oxygen-species accumulation and necrotic death in cultured cerebellar granule, neutrophil and PC12 cells has been reported, as has nuclear localisation of a fluorescently labelled peptide in HeLa cells and sequence-preferential binding to labelled oligonucleotides. Whether any of this occurs after administration to an intact animal or person, and whether the binding is specific enough to constitute regulation rather than nonspecific polyanion interaction, is not established.

Honest appraisal

How good is the evidence

Observational 0 human RCTs · 1 human trials · 1 animal

PubMed indexed 22 records for the name on 2026-08-06, of which 15 mention it in title or abstract — a genuinely small corpus. The strongest work is a controlled rat study in which pinealon given to methionine-loaded pregnant dams improved the offspring's spatial learning and reduced neuronal ROS. The human end of the literature is thin and indirect: the one record PubMed types as a clinical trial is an occupational-medicine comparison of 150 lorry drivers against 150 metal workers whose peptide arm is described in a single sentence, gave pinealon together with vesugen, and reports no separate effect for either. Roughly half the corpus is Russian-language work in one gerontology journal.

Where this evidence comes from

Khavinson is an author on the cell-culture study, the rat study, the nuclear-penetration study and the mechanistic review — four of the five studies on this page. The exception is the occupational-medicine paper, whose second author group is nonetheless affiliated with the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. No group outside that orbit has published on this peptide.

What is said vs what was shown

Claims, one at a time

Each claim carries its own evidence tier. A compound is never simply "well studied" — some of its claims may be, others not at all.

ClaimVerdictEvidenceBasis
Protects brain neurons against hypoxic and oxidative damage mixed Animal In rat dams loaded with dietary methionine to induce hyperhomocysteinaemia, pinealon improved the offspring's spatial orientation and learning and reduced ROS accumulation and necrosis in isolated cerebellar neurons. The model is a specific prenatal toxic insult, not ageing or stroke; the abstract states no group sizes and no statistics; and the compound's developer is a listed author. The supporting cell work is concentration-dependent in a dish with no stated in-vivo analogue.
Improves memory and cognitive function in people mixed Observational The only human record found is an occupational study of 150 lorry drivers and 150 metal craftsmen, most of which is a cross-sectional comparison of neurotic-disorder prevalence. The peptide result occupies one sentence, reports p<0.001-0.05 for improved psychoemotional indices with no effect size, and attributes the best result to pinealon and vesugen given together — so no effect can be assigned to pinealon alone. No allocation, blinding or placebo is described.
Enters the cell nucleus and regulates genes by binding DNA sequence-specifically mixed In vitro Fluorescein-labelled pinealon was seen in the cytoplasm, nucleus and nucleolus of HeLa cells, and unlabelled pinealon quenched the fluorescence of labelled oligonucleotides with constants that differed by sequence, which the authors read as preferential binding to CNG and CAG sites. Both observations are in a dish, the labelled peptide is not the peptide, and no transcriptional change was measured alongside the binding. The cell-viability paper infers genome interaction from the fact that cell-cycle effects saturate at higher concentrations than the antioxidant effects — an inference, not a measurement.
Primary sources

The studies themselves

StudyDesignSubjectsQuality
Pinealon increases cell viability by suppression of free radical levels and activating proliferative processes
Khavinson V, Ribakova Y, Kulebiakin K, Vladychenskaya E, Kozina L, Arutjunyan A, Boldyrev A · Rejuvenation research · 2011 PMID 21978084 		in_vitro / cell_culture — Rat cerebellar granule cells, neutrophils and PC12 pheochromocytoma cells under receptor-dependent and receptor-independent oxidative stress In vitro
risk of bias: high
authored by the developer
Pinealon protects the rat offspring from prenatal hyperhomocysteinemia
Arutjunyan A, Kozina L, Stvolinskiy S, Bulygina Y, Mashkina A, Khavinson V · International journal of clinical and experimental medicine · 2012 PMID 22567179 		animal_controlled / rat — Offspring of rats with experimental hyperhomocysteinaemia induced by dietary methionine loading during pregnancy Animal
risk of bias: high
authored by the developer
[The peptide correction of neurotic disorders among professional truck-drivers]
Bashkireva AS, Artamonova VG · Advances in gerontology = Uspekhi gerontologii · 2012 PMID 23734521 ru		 observational / human 300 — 150 male lorry drivers (mean age 43.3) and 150 male metal craftsmen as a control occupation, St Petersburg; a subset received bioregulating peptides Observational
risk of bias: high
Penetration of short fluorescence-labeled peptides into the nucleus in HeLa cells and in vitro specific interaction of the peptides with deoxyribooligonucleotides and DNA
Fedoreyeva LI, Kireev II, Khavinson VKh, Vanyushin BF · Biochemistry. Biokhimiia · 2011 PMID 22117547 		in_vitro / cell_culture — HeLa cells incubated with FITC-labelled epitalon, pinealon and testagen; plus fluorescence-quenching assays against labelled deoxyribooligonucleotides and DNA In vitro
risk of bias: high
authored by the developer
EDR Peptide: Possible Mechanism of Gene Expression and Protein Synthesis Regulation Involved in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease
Khavinson V, Linkova N, Kozhevnikova E, Trofimova S · Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020 PMID 33396470 		narrative_review / mixed — Review of cell-culture and animal work on the EDR tripeptide, plus an unreferenced statement about memory in elderly patients Animal
risk of bias: high
authored by the developer
What we do not know
  • Pinealon contains no lysine. The common online claim that the Khavinson short peptides are lysine-anchored is simply false for this one, and nothing in the literature read here explains why the tissue specificity is supposed to survive that.
  • No study has measured what happens to the intact tripeptide after administration to a person — there is no human pharmacokinetic data of any kind.
  • No trial has given pinealon alone to people. The one human record combines it with vesugen and reports no separately attributable effect.
  • Whether the fluorescently labelled peptide seen in HeLa nuclei behaves like the unlabelled peptide has not been tested; the conjugate is several times the mass of the tripeptide.
  • The Russian-language half of this corpus, roughly ten papers in one gerontology journal, has not been read or assessed for this entry.
  • No dose is recorded on any study on this page, because no full text has been read.
  • No group unconnected to the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology has published on this compound.
Discussion, not evidence

What people actually report

Read this differently from everything above. Public posts from Reddit and X. Nothing here has been verified beyond confirming the post exists, and community reports are the weakest tier this site recognises. Doses discussed in these threads are deliberately not reproduced.
  • vendor trust and product authenticity concerns
  • anecdotes about sleep and mood changes
  • reports involving brain fog, attention, and shift-work stress
  • questions about nasal, injectable, and capsule forms
  • discussion of combinations with Semax, Epitalon, or psychedelics

What people keep asking

  • What experiences have people had with Pinealon for sleep or mood?
  • Are vendor products authentic and trustworthy?
  • Can different product forms be used interchangeably?
  • What happens when Pinealon is combined with other peptides or psychedelics?