Pinealon Research: The Glu-Asp-Arg Tripeptide and Its Thin Literature

What is Pinealon?

What is Pinealon? As a molecule it is a synthetic tripeptide — just three amino acids, Glu-Asp-Arg, written EDR in one-letter code. It belongs to the family of short “peptide bioregulators” associated with V. Kh. Khavinson and colleagues at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, a body of work that studies very short peptides in the context of pineal/neuro research and ageing. “Pinealon” and “EDR peptide” refer to the same Glu-Asp-Arg molecule. This is a neutral molecular and provenance description; the sections below cover the chemistry and what the sparse literature has examined, not any effect in an organism.

Reference data

The molecule facts below are from the public chemical record (PubChem CID 10273502). Identity and form only.

These are catalogue and chemical-record facts — a very small, defined peptide. No handling quantity, reconstitution procedure or route is given or implied.

What the literature has examined

The identifiable peer-reviewed literature on Pinealon/EDR is small, and it is described here strictly as what studies investigated in cell and animal models:

• Cell-viability / oxidative-stress models — Khavinson et al. (2011, Rejuvenation Res, PMID 21978084) examined free-radical levels and cell viability in cultured cells under oxidative stress.
• Rodent developmental model — Arutjunyan et al. (2012, Int J Clin Exp Med, PMC3342713) examined offspring outcomes in a rat model of prenatal hyperhomocysteinemia.
• Gene-expression hypothesis (review) — Khavinson et al. (2020, Molecules, PMID 33396470) is a review from the originating group setting out their proposed mechanism, in which short peptides are hypothesised to bind DNA regulatory regions and modulate transcription.
• Rodent Alzheimer’s-model work — Khavinson et al. (2021, Pharmaceuticals, PMID 34071923) examined tripeptides including EDR in a mouse model (a formal correction to this article was later published, 2025).
• Human-cell ageing model — Kraskovskaya et al. (2024, Int J Mol Sci, PMC11546785) examined EDR alongside other short peptides in fibroblast-derived induced neurons.

Every item names what an in-vitro or animal study examined. None is an outcome, and none describes anything a reader would experience.

Evidence status — stated plainly

Being honest about the evidence is the point of this page. The peer-reviewed base for Pinealon is thin: little peer-reviewed human data exists — in fact, no verifiable human clinical trials of Pinealon/EDR were found. The identifiable studies are almost all preclinical (cell and rodent), and they originate overwhelmingly from a single research group and its collaborators; independent, English-language replication is essentially absent. The proposed mechanism — direct peptide–DNA transcriptional regulation — is a hypothesis advanced by that group in its own reviews, not an independently established fact. A great deal of the material about Pinealon online is vendor or supplier content rather than scientific literature and should not be read as evidence. In short: this is an early, sparse, single-group preclinical literature, and we present it as exactly that.

How to verify this compound yourself

Identity and purity for a small peptide are established the same way regardless of how much biology is published about it: HPLC reports purity as a percentage and mass spectrometry confirms the measured mass against the expected molecular weight (≈ 418 Da). See how to read a COA and how to verify peptide purity, and check the exact batch on the verify tool.

Research-grade sourcing and verification

For laboratory research use only, Pinealon is supplied with a per-batch Certificate of Analysis reporting HPLC purity (%) and mass-spec identity confirmation. Whatever the state of the biology, the identity and purity of the material are documented rather than assumed. This is sourcing and quality-assurance framing only.

Frequently asked questions

Literature cited

1. Khavinson V, Ribakova Y, Kulebiakin K, et al. “Pinealon increases cell viability by suppression of free radical levels and activating proliferative processes.” Rejuvenation Res. 2011;14(5):535–541. PMID 21978084. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21978084.
2. Arutjunyan A, Kozina L, Stvolinskiy S, et al. “Pinealon protects the rat offspring from prenatal hyperhomocysteinemia.” Int J Clin Exp Med. 2012;5(2):179–185. PMC3342713. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3342713.
3. Khavinson V, Linkova N, Kozhevnikova E, Trofimova S. “EDR Peptide: Possible Mechanism of Gene Expression and Protein Synthesis Regulation Involved in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease.” Molecules. 2020;26(1):159. PMID 33396470. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33396470.
4. Khavinson V, Ilina A, Kraskovskaya N, et al. “Neuroprotective Effects of Tripeptides—Epigenetic Regulators in Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease.” Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2021;14(6):515. PMID 34071923. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34071923. (Correction published 2025.)
5. Kraskovskaya N, Linkova N, et al. “Short Peptides Protect Fibroblast-Derived Induced Neurons from Age-Related Changes.” Int J Mol Sci. 2024;25(21):11363. PMC11546785. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11546785.
6. National Center for Biotechnology Information. “PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10273502, Glu-Asp-Arg.” pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/10273502 (formula, mass).