Pinealon peptide: what the two human studies and the rat work show, and what remains unverified
What 17 indexed publications and 0 randomized trials actually state about pinealon, sentence by sentence, each tied to its source and labeled by the kind of evidence it is.
At a glance
What Pinealon is and how it acts
Pinealon is a peptide in the bioregulator short peptides class (neuroprotective bioregulator claimed; small literature). Europe PMC indexes 17 publications naming it or a listed alias in a title or abstract, including 0 randomized controlled trials and 1 clinical trials of any design, as of . The strongest evidence tier in that literature is human clinical trials.
This page reports what those studies state, sentence by sentence, with each statement tied to its source and labeled by the kind of evidence it is. It does not recommend use, and it does not translate study doses into anything personal.
What the evidence level means
Publication counts show what is indexed, not how strong the evidence is. The ledger below separates human clinical records from preclinical, analytical, and in-vitro work.
Interpretation boundary: An indexed publication count is a discovery measure. It does not establish efficacy, safety, approval, or a personal treatment plan.
Pinealon in two minutes
What it is. A three-amino-acid peptide, Glu-Asp-Arg, from the Russian bioregulator family developed by Vladimir Khavinson's institute. Sold in Russia as a supplement and elsewhere as a research chemical; it belongs to the same pineal-derived family as Epitalon.
What the research actually shows. 17 indexed publications and no randomized trial. Two human studies exist, both Russian-language, both in older adults with organic brain syndrome, neither randomized and neither stating a dose in its abstract. The rest is rat and cell work from one affiliated network.
The figure everyone quotes. A 72-patient series in adults with consequences of traumatic brain injury, given oral 0.2 mg twice daily for 20 to 30 days, appears only second-hand in a 2020 review; the primary study is not indexed and this page could not verify it.
Status. Not approved anywhere. Not named on the WADA list, but caught by its S0 rule for unapproved substances.
Where the evidence is thinnest. Absorption, dose, effect and safety in people; sleep, which no study measured; and independence, since every human report comes from the same network.
Editorial synthesis Written from general pharmacology, the development record and what is commonly reported; not a cited finding. Cited findings on this page carry their own tier.
How Pinealon is thought to work, and why sleep keeps coming up
No human study has measured sleep, melatonin or circadian markers; the sleep framing comes from the pineal origin of the sequence. Written from general pharmacology and the development record, and marked as editorial synthesis; the measurements behind it are quoted in the biomarker section.
- Editorial synthesis from general knowledge
- Editorial synthesis from general knowledge
- Editorial synthesis from general knowledge
What happened in the human studies?
This record's ledger holds 2 primary human studies. Few enough to show in full: each card quotes what its abstract reported about Pinealon. Read them before any other section on this page.
-
In the monitoring process 110 representatives of different age groups held a comparative analysis of the efficacy and safety of several geroprotective techniques, including the use of dry carbon dioxide baths, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, therapeutic massage and receiving Oligopeptide preparations containing complexes lysyl-glutamyl-asparagin and glutamyl-asparagin-arginine (Vezugen and Pinealon).
Sourcepmid-28539017· quoted verbatim from the abstract -
In geriatric practice, we recommend to apply the peptides Pinealon and Vesugen as geroprotectors anabolic neuroprotective and no antioxidant type for reducing the rate of aging in patients with the organic brain syndrome vascular and/or traumatic genesis.
Sourcepmid-26390612· quoted verbatim from the abstract
What did the studies find?
Outcomes in two small Russian-language studies of older adults and in rats and cells. Neither human study was randomized or blinded, and neither abstract states a dose. One row per primary study in this record's ledger. Fields are read from each paper's indexing and abstract. "Analytical method" marks papers about detecting or measuring the compound rather than about its effects.
| Study | Design | n | Species | Dose | Route | Duration | Reported outcome | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Myakotnykh 2016 | Human study | — | Humans | — | — | — | — | Observational, human |
| Meshchaninov 2015 | Human study | 32 | Humans | — | — | — | In geriatric practice, we recommend to apply the peptides Pinealon and Vesugen as geroprotectors anabolic neuroprotective and no antioxidant type for reducing the rate of aging in patients with the organic brain… | Observational, human |
| Arutjunyan 2012 | Animal study | — | Rats | — | — | — | This may be proved by the fact that the administration of pinealon to pregnant rats loaded with methionine improved their offspring spatial orientation and learning ability and decreased both reactive oxygen species… | Animal, preclinical |
| Khavinson 2011 | Animal study | — | Rats | — | — | — | Because restriction of ROS accumulation and cell mortality is saturated at lower concentrations, whereas cell cycle modulation continues at higher concentrations of pinealon, one can conclude that besides its known… | Animal, preclinical |
| Mendzheritskiĭ 2011 | Animal study | — | Rats | — | — | — | Under Pinealon before occlusion of carotid arteries, behavioral dream has been increased and a position-finding behavior, a motivational behavior and a motor performance have been reduced. | Animal, preclinical |
| Kozina 2008 | Animal study | — | Rats | — | — | — | The short peptides increase stability of red blood cell membranes toward osmotic hemolysis. | Animal, preclinical |
Pinealon doses in studies
Every figure here was given in a study. Where an abstract states no dose, the table says so rather than filling the gap.
| Study | Who or what | Route and dose | Duration | What was found |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meshchaninov 2015 | 32 adults aged 41 to 83 with several chronic conditions and organic brain syndrome in remission | Pinealon and Vesugen preparations; route and dose not stated in the abstract | Not stated | Anabolic effect; slower biological-age indices; prooxidant activity; fall in CD34+ cells |
| Myakotnykh 2016 | 110 people of different ages | Pinealon with Vesugen; dose not stated | Not stated | Combined peptides gave the largest change in biological-age indices and were among the safest of five methods |
| Case series reported in a 2020 review (not in ledger) | 72 adults aged 30 to 74 with post-traumatic cerebrasthenia, added to standard care | Oral, 0.2 mg twice daily | 20 to 30 days | Memory, headache and EEG changes reported; no control group; primary study not retrievable |
| Mendzheritskiĭ 2011 | Old rats, carotid artery occlusion | Given before occlusion; dose not stated in the abstract | Single pre-treatment | Higher survival; more sleep-like behaviour; less exploration and motor activity; caspase-3 moderately raised |
| Arutjunyan 2012 | Pregnant rats on a methionine load, then their offspring | Given to the dams; dose not stated in the abstract | Pregnancy | Offspring learned and oriented better; fewer necrotic cerebellar neurons |
| Khavinson 2011; Kozina 2008 | Cerebellar granule cells, neutrophils, PC12 cells, red cells, human lipoproteins | A range of concentrations; effects dose-dependent | Hours | Less reactive-oxygen build-up and necrosis; membranes more stable; no direct antioxidant action |
Figures for injected or intranasal Pinealon circulate on forums and vendor pages. None has been given to a person in a study, so none is reproduced here; the table holds every dose a study actually administered, and the one human figure it contains is second-hand.
Editorial synthesis Written from general pharmacology, the development record and what is commonly reported; not a cited finding. Cited findings on this page carry their own tier.
Side effects: what has been recorded
No study in the ledger recorded adverse events as such. The 2015 study of 32 patients did report two laboratory signals, described below, that dosing guides leave out. Events and their frequency as each study reported them, with the denominator where the abstract gives one.
- Source
pmid-26390612 - Source
pmid-26390612 - Source
pmid-21809624 - Editorial synthesis from general knowledge
Who Pinealon is discussed for, and the cautions that recur
Three groups appear. Studied: older adults with organic brain syndrome of vascular or traumatic origin and several chronic illnesses, in the two indexed studies. Reported second-hand: adults with consequences of traumatic brain injury, in the unverified series. Community: people seeking memory, sleep or anti-ageing effects, for whom no study exists.
No study set exclusion criteria, so the cautions below are what the data themselves raise, not contraindications:
- Blood cell production. The 2015 study saw a fall in CD34+ cells its authors called inhibition of hemopoiesis. Anyone with a blood disorder has a reason to read that line before anything else on this page.
- Oxidative balance. The same study measured prooxidant activity, the opposite of the antioxidant claim vendors make.
- Pregnancy. The only data are in rats, where the peptide changed the offspring's brains; an effect in pregnancy is not a safety finding for pregnancy.
- Younger adults. Nobody under 41 appears in the indexed studies; the unverified series starts at 30.
- Interactions. No study looked; the patients in the human studies were on standard treatment for their other conditions, and nothing was reported about it.
- Athletes. As with Semax and the other Russian peptides, unapproved substances are prohibited under WADA's S0 category at all times.
Editorial synthesis Written from general pharmacology, the development record and what is commonly reported; not a cited finding. Cited findings on this page carry their own tier.
Biomarkers measured in studies
Laboratory and clinical measures the studies report tracking, including which hormones did and did not change.
- Source
pmid-26390612 - Source
pmid-28539017
What is measured over time, and what is not
The only duration in any human report is 20 to 30 days, from the second-hand traumatic-brain-injury series. The two indexed studies report their measurements after a course whose length the abstracts do not give. Nothing was measured after treatment stopped, so nothing is known about whether any change lasts, and no study reports when an effect began. In the rats, the peptide was given once before the injury.
Editorial synthesis Written from general pharmacology, the development record and what is commonly reported; not a cited finding. Cited findings on this page carry their own tier.
Routes: what the studies used
What people report outside the literature
Forum reports are experiences, not evidence; nothing described here has been tested in a controlled study. What circulates in user communities and clinic marketing, reported so a reader knows the figures and their origin. None of it has been tested in a trial, and none of it is a suggestion.
- Editorial synthesis from general knowledge
Reconstitution mathematics
Lyophilised peptide is supplied as a mass in a vial and dissolved in a stated volume of diluent. Two figures follow from that and nothing else:
- Concentration = mass in vial ÷ diluent volume. A 5 mg vial in 2 mL is 2.5 mg/mL, or 2,500 mcg/mL.
- Volume for a given mass = that mass ÷ concentration. 250 mcg at 2,500 mcg/mL is 0.1 mL. On a U-100 insulin syringe, where 1 mL is 100 units, that is 10 units.
Study doses on this page are quoted as published, in the units the authors used. Converting between mcg, mg and IU, or between a mass and a syringe volume, is arithmetic; deciding a mass is not, and this page does not do it. The reconstitution calculator performs the conversion with the formula shown.
Reading a certificate of analysis
A certificate of analysis is a laboratory report on one batch. Reading it means checking four things in order.
- Identity. Mass spectrometry should report an observed molecular mass matching the peptide's theoretical mass within the instrument's stated tolerance. A certificate with no mass spectrometry, or one that lists only the expected value, has not confirmed identity.
- Purity. HPLC purity is the area of the main peak as a share of all peaks, at a stated wavelength. It says nothing about what the other peaks are, and it is not a measure of quantity.
- Quantity. Net peptide content, by amino acid analysis or UV, is the fraction of the vial's mass that is peptide rather than counter-ions and water. A 5 mg vial at 80% net content holds 4 mg of peptide, and every concentration figure above changes accordingly.
- Provenance. The batch number on the certificate should match the vial, the laboratory should be named and independent of the seller, and the test date should be recent.
This page rates no supplier and links to none. It describes how to read the document.
Equipment described in studies
Published human studies of injectable peptides report the same small set of materials: single-use insulin syringes with fixed needles, most often U-100 with 29 to 31 gauge needles; bacteriostatic water or sterile water for injection as diluent, with the choice stated in the methods; alcohol swabs; and refrigerated storage of reconstituted solution. Animal studies more often report intraperitoneal or intragastric administration and state the vehicle used. Where a study in this record's ledger names its materials or vehicle, that sentence appears under storage or routes above; where it does not, nothing is assumed here.
Storage and handling
No storage or stability study of Pinealon is indexed. Vendor sheets follow the general practice for lyophilised peptides, refrigerated as powder and colder once in solution, but that is convention, not data for this compound.
Editorial synthesis Written from general pharmacology, the development record and what is commonly reported; not a cited finding. Cited findings on this page carry their own tier.
Common mistakes in how Pinealon is discussed
- Reading the evidence tier as trial evidence. This record carries the human-clinical-trial tier because two human studies exist. Neither was randomized or blinded, and both are known outside Russia only through their abstracts.
- Quoting 0.2 mg twice daily as a protocol. It is one uncontrolled series, reported second-hand, in one condition. It was not compared with another dose or with no treatment.
- Treating the name as a melatonin link. Pinealon contains no melatonin and no study measured melatonin or circadian markers. The name records the pineal extract the sequence was derived from.
- Carrying injection figures over from other peptides. No injected dose has been given to a person in any study of Pinealon.
- Calling it safe. The 2015 authors recommended it, and the same abstract reports prooxidant activity and a fall in CD34+ cells. Their recommendation is a judgment; the measurements are the data.
- Assuming independent replication. The human reports and most of the animal work come from Khavinson's institute and its collaborators. The one paper that ranks on Google for the term is the 2012 rat study from that group.
Editorial synthesis Written from general pharmacology, the development record and what is commonly reported; not a cited finding. Cited findings on this page carry their own tier.
Pinealon vs Epitalon, Semax and Cortexin
| Compound | What it is | Human evidence | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pinealon | Glu-Asp-Arg tripeptide; pineal-derived bioregulator; 17 indexed publications | 2 non-randomized Russian studies in older adults; 1 second-hand case series | Supplement in Russia; research chemical elsewhere |
| Epitalon | Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly tetrapeptide from the same pineal programme; 170 indexed publications | 5 randomized trials; 9 human studies in its ledger | Not approved; research chemical |
| Semax | Seven-amino-acid ACTH(4-10) analogue given as nasal drops; 208 indexed publications | 1 randomized trials; 8 human studies in its ledger | Registered medicine in Russia; not approved elsewhere |
| Cortexin | Polypeptide complex extracted from animal cortex, not a single peptide | Russian clinical use; compared with Pinealon in the 2011 old-rat study, where both raised survival | Registered medicine in Russia; no record on this site |
The 2013 Russian review that groups these compounds treats Pinealon and Semax as short peptides and Cortexin and Cerebrolysin as polypeptide complexes. The demand for Pinealon vs Epitalon comes from vendors selling them as a pair; no study has compared the two in people. Head-to-head pages on this site are listed under comparisons.
Editorial synthesis Written from general pharmacology, the development record and what is commonly reported; not a cited finding. Cited findings on this page carry their own tier.
Regulatory status
Registry facts only. Jurisdiction-level status, compounding categories and sport prohibitions need their own cited documents before they appear here.
- Editorial synthesis from general knowledge · primary document to be added to the ledger
Open questions and limitations
What is genuinely unknown, stated plainly. A missing field is not evidence that the outcome is safe, effective, or established.
- No study in this record's ledger reports interactions with other agents for Pinealon; the 2011 cell study's phrase 'interact directly with the cell genome' is a mechanistic inference, not a drug interaction.
- No study in this record's ledger reports routes of administration for Pinealon.
- No study in this record's ledger reports doses used for Pinealon.
- No study in this record's ledger reports treatment durations for Pinealon.
- No study in this record's ledger reports weight-normalized doses for Pinealon.
- No study in this record's ledger reports dose-escalation schedules for Pinealon.
- No study in this record's ledger reports exclusion criteria for Pinealon.
- No study in this record's ledger reports onset or duration of effects for Pinealon.
- No study in this record's ledger reports storage or stability for Pinealon.
- No randomized controlled trial of Pinealon is indexed in Europe PMC.
Questions people ask
What is Pinealon?
Pinealon is the synthetic tripeptide glutamate-aspartate-arginine (Glu-Asp-Arg, or EDR), one of the short bioregulator peptides developed by Vladimir Khavinson's group at the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. It is studied for neuroprotection and biological-age markers, mostly in Russian-language literature.
What is the half-life of Pinealon?
Unknown. No pharmacokinetic study of Pinealon is indexed in Europe PMC, so no half-life, absorption or elimination figure exists for any route. Figures quoted for it online are assumptions carried over from other short peptides.
Why is Pinealon called a bioregulator?
Bioregulator is the term Khavinson's group uses for short peptides derived from the amino-acid composition of organ extracts, here a pineal-gland complex, and proposed to regulate gene expression in the matching tissue. The label describes a hypothesis and a product family, not a demonstrated mechanism in people.
What is Pinealon used for?
In the indexed literature it has been given to older adults with organic brain syndrome and multiple chronic conditions, as a proposed geroprotector, and (in one unverified report) to adults with consequences of traumatic brain injury. Outside the literature it circulates for memory, sleep and brain ageing; none of those uses has been tested in a controlled study.
Is Pinealon legal?
It is not an approved medicine anywhere. In Russia it is sold as a dietary supplement; in the United States, the EU and the UK it is sold only as a research chemical, not approved by the FDA or any equivalent for human use. Purchase legality depends on the country and is outside this page's scope.
Has Pinealon been tested in humans?
Twice in the indexed literature: a 2015 study of 32 patients aged 41 to 83 with organic brain syndrome and several chronic conditions, and a 2016 comparison of geroprotective methods in 110 people. Both are Russian-language, neither was randomized, and both gave Pinealon alongside a second peptide, Vesugen. A 72-patient traumatic-brain-injury series is quoted widely but exists only second-hand in a 2020 review.
Is there a Pinealon dose?
No dose has been established. Neither indexed human study states one in its abstract. The only human figure in circulation, oral 0.2 mg twice daily for 20 to 30 days, comes from the unverified case series. No injected or nasal dose has been given to a person in any study.
Is Pinealon taken orally or injected?
Every human report involves oral capsules, which is how it is sold in Russia. Injection and nasal spray appear only on vendor pages and forums; no study has used either route in people, and no study has measured whether a tripeptide taken by mouth reaches the brain intact.
What are the side effects of Pinealon?
No study recorded adverse events as an outcome, so frequencies are unknown. The 2015 study did report prooxidant activity and a fall in CD34+ blood cells that its authors called inhibition of hemopoiesis, and old rats showed a moderate rise in caspase-3. Forum reports describe few complaints.
Is Pinealon FDA approved?
No. It has no approved indication in the United States or in any Western regulator's system and is sold there as a research chemical. In Russia it is reported to be sold as a dietary supplement, not as a registered drug.
Is Pinealon banned by WADA?
It is not named on the Prohibited List, but the list's S0 category prohibits at all times any pharmacological substance with no approval from a regulatory health authority. Pinealon fits that description, so an athlete should treat it as prohibited.
Does Pinealon help sleep?
No human study has measured sleep. The idea comes from the pineal origin of the sequence, a 2011 study in which old rats given Pinealon showed more sleep-like behaviour, and a 2026 review that lists it among agents targeting circadian regulators. None of that is a sleep result in people.
Does Pinealon really bind DNA?
That is the developers' hypothesis, drawn from cell experiments in which higher concentrations kept changing the cell cycle after the antioxidant effect had plateaued. It has not been demonstrated in living tissue, and no receptor or confirmed target exists.
Is Pinealon the same as Epitalon?
No. Both come from the same pineal-derived programme, but Pinealon is the tripeptide Glu-Asp-Arg and Epitalon is the tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly, with a different and larger literature. No study has compared them in people; vendors pair them, which is where the comparison demand comes from.
What do people on Reddit say about Pinealon?
Mostly uncertainty. Threads describe subtle or no noticeable effects on memory or sleep, few complaints, and frequent pairing with Epitalon. These are experiences without controls or measurement and cannot be weighed against the studies.
Is the 72-patient Pinealon study real?
It is reported in a 2020 narrative review as an open series of adults aged 30 to 74 with post-traumatic cerebrasthenia given oral 0.2 mg twice daily for 20 to 30 days alongside standard care, with improvements in memory, headache and EEG. The primary paper is not indexed in Europe PMC and this page could not retrieve it, so it is listed as unverified.
Who did the Pinealon research?
Almost all of it comes from Vladimir Khavinson's St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology and collaborating Russian groups. No independent laboratory outside that network has published a human study, which is the main reason the evidence is treated with caution.
What did the pregnant-rat study show?
Rats loaded with methionine during pregnancy, to raise homocysteine, were given Pinealon; their offspring learned and oriented better and had fewer dying cerebellar neurons than untreated offspring. It is a neuroprotection result in a rat model, not evidence of safety or benefit in human pregnancy.
Sources
Full citations. Every claim above links to one of these by its id.
- 1Short-Term Performance Assay Identifies Functional Benefits and Early Toxicity of Longevity Interventions in Mice
doi-10-21203-rs-3-rs-9682683-v1· · preprint - 2Short-Term Performance Assay Identifies Functional Benefits and Early Toxicity of Longevity Interventions in Mice
doi-10-64898-2026-02-25-707674· · preprint - 3Therapeutic Peptides in Orthopaedics: Applications, Challenges, and Future Directions.
pmid-41490200· · peer-reviewed - 4[Comparative analysis of different methods of geroprotective].
pmid-28539017· · peer-reviewed - 5
- 6[Neuroprotective effects of peptides bioregulators in people of various age].
pmid-24738258· · peer-reviewed - 7Pinealon protects the rat offspring from prenatal hyperhomocysteinemia.
pmid-22567179· · peer-reviewed - 8Pinealon increases cell viability by suppression of free radical levels and activating proliferative processes.
pmid-21978084· · peer-reviewed - 9
- 10[Biological activity of regulatory peptides in model experiments in vitro].
pmid-18546826· · peer-reviewed
Reference card
- Compound
- Pinealon, bioregulator short peptides
- Evidence tier
- Human clinical trial
- Indexed publications
- 17 · 0 RCTs · 1 other clinical trials
- Approval
- no registered development programme found
- Routes reported
- —
- Reviewed
- Adam Mirando, PharmD,
Study figures are as published in each source and are not recommendations. Print or save this card with its date.
Last reviewed and what changed
Newest first. These are the record's own revision dates, and the same dates feed the sitemap.
- · Reviewed by Adam Mirando, PharmD, on 2026-09-24.
- · Written under the sequencing rule after research/intents/pinealon.json: guide (7 sections), FAQ to 13 plus 5 from the map, mechanism, reported-use, regulatory, adverse-event and biomarker claims; the second-hand 72-patient series marked unverified; intent-driven H1 and title. Triage: misdrafted interactions claim removed (regex matched 'interact directly with the cell genome'); contextual links added.
- · Claims drafted extractively from 8 ledger sources by scripts/draft_claims.py: 1 claims, 6 evidence-table rows. Status researched -> draft.
- · Claims drafted extractively from 8 ledger sources by scripts/draft_claims.py: 2 claims, 6 evidence-table rows. Status researched -> draft.
- · Metadata refreshed by scripts/fetch_evidence.py --refresh-meta: tier animal-preclinical -> human-clinical-trial.
- · Evidence fetched from Europe PMC and ChEMBL by scripts/fetch_evidence.py; claims not yet written.