What is epitalon?
Epitalon is the synthetic tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly. It is also written epithalon or epithalone, and abbreviated AEDG. It was designed in St Petersburg from the amino acid makeup of epithalamin, a peptide extract of bovine pineal gland. The two names are often confused. Epithalamin is the extract, and epitalon is the four-residue peptide. Later, mass spectrometry found the peptide directly in a pineal polypeptide complex.
Free amino acids and di-, tri- and pentapeptides were also present (Khavinson et al., 2017). A 2025 review sums up 25 years of in vitro, in vivo and in silico work. It notes that physicochemical and structural work on the peptide still lags behind the biological work (Araj et al., 2025). Disguised Alpha supplies epitalon as a lyophilized powder for laboratory research use only. Nothing on this page is guidance for use in people.
Epitalon reference data
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Epitalon |
| Aliases | Epithalon, epithalone, AEDG peptide (PubChem CID 219042) |
| Sequence | Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly (AEDG, PubChem CID 219042) |
| Peptide class | Tetrapeptide |
| Molecular formula | C₁₄H₂₂N₄O₉ |
| Molecular weight | 390.35 g/mol |
| CAS number | 307297-39-8 (PubChem CID 219042) |
| Related material | Epithalamin, a bovine pineal peptide extract, is a different substance |
| Form | Lyophilized powder |
| Sizes carried | 10MG, 50MG |
| Testing | Third-party tested, with the certificate for each lot published on the product page and in the COA portal |
Formula, molecular weight, CAS number, peptide class and sizes come from the epitalon product page. Sequence and aliases come from PubChem. Check identity and measured content against your lot's certificate.
What the research covers
Published work on epitalon falls into six areas. Each summary below states the model used. One caveat applies to the whole field. PubMed holds roughly 160 records that mention the peptide. About two thirds list V. Kh. Khavinson or V. N. Anisimov as an author. Both are from the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. Many of these papers are in a small set of Russian-language journals. Replication by other groups exists, but it is recent and narrow. The only indexed study typed as a controlled clinical trial also comes from that group (Khavinson et al., 2002).
Model-organism survival studies
In Drosophila melanogaster, the peptide was added to the culture medium at the developmental stage. This was reported to raise the lifespan of adult flies by 11 to 16 percent. It was seen across a wide concentration range. There was no clear link between concentration and effect (Khavinson et al., 2000).
Female outbred SHR mice got the peptide monthly from three months of age until natural death. Mean survival did not change. The reported differences were a slower age-related change in estrous function and fewer chromosome aberrations in bone marrow cells. The last tenth of the cohort also survived 13.3 percent longer. And the leukemia rate was lower (Anisimov et al., 2003).
Tumor models in rodents
Female HER-2/neu transgenic mice got the peptide monthly from two months of age. This was linked to a lower cumulative number and smaller maximum size of mammary tumors. There was also a 3.7-fold drop in HER-2/neu messenger RNA in tumor tissue. A comparison dipeptide went the other way (Anisimov et al., 2002). In rats exposed to 1,2-dimethylhydrazine, some groups got the peptide throughout or during carcinogen exposure. These groups had fewer colon tumors per animal than controls (Anisimov et al., 2002).
Telomerase and telomere length in cell culture
The most cited claim in this field is that the peptide induces telomerase activity. The first report added it to telomerase-negative human fetal fibroblast cultures. It described expression of the catalytic subunit, enzyme activity and telomere elongation (Khavinson et al., 2003). In 2025, an outside group in London added the peptide to breast cancer lines, normal epithelial cells and fibroblasts. It found telomere lengthening that rose with concentration.
In the normal cells this worked through hTERT and telomerase. In the cancer lines it worked through alternative lengthening of telomeres (Al-Dulaimi et al., 2025). Note that this paper carries a published correction (PMID 41240216). The St Petersburg group also studied human blood lymphocytes. It reported changes in relative telomere length in 7 of 11 participants, in both directions (Khavinson et al., 2019).
Oocyte and embryo models
Two outside groups have used the peptide in reproductive cell biology. One group cultured mouse oocytes aged after ovulation, with 0.1 mM of the peptide in the medium. At 24 hours, this was linked to lower reactive oxygen species and fewer spindle defects. It was also linked to higher mitochondrial membrane potential and less apoptosis (Yue et al., 2022). The other group worked on bovine in vitro embryo production. It used the peptide to activate telomerase in cumulus-oocyte complexes. It found gains in maturation rate and post-thaw blastocyst hatching (Ullah et al., 2025).
Endocrine and pineal studies, including a negative finding
In old rhesus monkeys, the peptide was reported to raise evening melatonin. It was also said to normalize the circadian pattern of cortisol (Khavinson et al., 2001). A later study in the same colony found lower basal glucose and insulin in old animals. It also found a faster glucose disappearance rate in them, with no change in young ones (Goncharova et al., 2005).
A perifusion study used pineal glands from young and old rats. It found no significant effect on melatonin secretion at concentrations from 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻⁶ M. The response to a beta-adrenergic agonist did not change either. The authors concluded that the peptide does not appear to control melatonin secretion in that preparation (Djeridane et al., 2003).
Proposed mechanism and recent cell work
The St Petersburg group suggests that short peptides bind directly to DNA and histones. In one study, fluorescence-labeled epitalon, pinealon and testagen entered the nucleus and nucleolus of HeLa cells. They also quenched the fluorescence of labeled short DNA strands in a sequence-dependent way (Fedoreyeva et al., 2011). Molecular modeling has been used to argue for preferential binding to histones H1/3 and H1/6. The same paper found higher expression of neurogenic markers in human gingival mesenchymal stem cells (Khavinson et al., 2020).
An Italian and Russian team used a scratch model with retinal pigment epithelial cells held in high glucose. It reported that the peptide restored delayed closure (Gatta et al., 2025). Separately, analytical chemists at a public health institute found the peptide in two unapproved preparations seized as medicines. This is a reminder that it is a research material, not an approved product (Vanhee et al., 2015).
Key studies
- Khavinson VK, et al. "Effect of epitalon on the lifespan increase in Drosophila melanogaster." Mech Ageing Dev. 2000. PMID 11087911. DOI 10.1016/s0047-6374(00)00217-7. Drosophila model: survival across a wide concentration range in the culture medium.
- Anisimov VN, et al. "Inhibitory effect of the peptide epitalon on the development of spontaneous mammary tumors in HER-2/neu transgenic mice." Int J Cancer. 2002. PMID 12209581. DOI 10.1002/ijc.10570. Transgenic mouse model: tumor number, size and oncogene transcript levels.
- Khavinson VKh, et al. "Epithalon peptide induces telomerase activity and telomere elongation in human somatic cells." Bull Exp Biol Med. 2003. PMID 12937682. DOI 10.1023/a:1025493705728. Human fetal fibroblast culture: telomerase subunit expression and telomere length.
- Anisimov VN, et al. "Effect of Epitalon on biomarkers of aging, life span and spontaneous tumor incidence in female Swiss-derived SHR mice." Biogerontology. 2003. PMID 14501183. DOI 10.1023/a:1025114230714. Mouse model, 54 animals per group followed to natural death.
- Djeridane Y, et al. "Effect of a synthetic pineal tetrapeptide (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly) on melatonin secretion by the pineal gland of young and old rats." J Endocrinol Invest. 2003. PMID 12809170. DOI 10.1007/BF03345159. Rat pineal perifusion: negative finding for melatonin secretion.
- Goncharova ND, et al. "Pineal peptides restore the age-related disturbances in hormonal functions of the pineal gland and the pancreas." Exp Gerontol. 2005. PMID 15664732. DOI 10.1016/j.exger.2004.10.004. Rhesus monkey model: glucose tolerance, insulin dynamics and night melatonin.
- Khavinson V, et al. "AEDG Peptide (Epitalon) Stimulates Gene Expression and Protein Synthesis during Neurogenesis: Possible Epigenetic Mechanism." Molecules. 2020. PMID 32019204. DOI 10.3390/molecules25030609. Human gingival mesenchymal stem cells plus molecular modeling of histone binding.
- Yue X, et al. "Epitalon protects against post-ovulatory aging-related damage of mouse oocytes in vitro." Aging (Albany NY). 2022. PMID 35413689. DOI 10.18632/aging.204007. Mouse oocyte culture: reactive oxygen species, spindle morphology and apoptosis over 24 hours.
- Araj SK, et al. "Overview of Epitalon: Highly Bioactive Pineal Tetrapeptide with Promising Properties." Int J Mol Sci. 2025. PMID 40141333. DOI 10.3390/ijms26062691. Review: 25 years of in vitro, in vivo and in silico work, plus the gaps in structural data.
- Al-Dulaimi S, et al. "Epitalon increases telomere length in human cell lines through telomerase upregulation or ALT activity." Biogerontology. 2025. PMID 40908429. DOI 10.1007/s10522-025-10315-x. Human normal and cancer cell lines: qPCR and immunofluorescence; see the published correction, PMID 41240216.
Handling and storage of lyophilized epitalon
General lab practice for this material:
- Store the lyophilized powder at -20°C, protected from light, until use. Storage guidance is on the product page.
- Let the sealed vial reach room temperature before opening. This keeps moisture from condensing on the powder.
- The peptide carries two acidic side chains plus a free C-terminus. It is highly water soluble. Make stock solutions in water or a neutral buffer. Check pH after reconstitution, since unbuffered solutions of acidic peptides can sit well below neutral.
- Reported cell-culture work spans a very wide concentration range. It runs from micromolar in oocyte and fibroblast media down to nanogram-per-milliliter levels in neuronal cultures. So match the concentration to the published model you are reproducing, not to a general figure.
- After reconstitution, keep solutions at 2 to 8°C and protected from light. Split stock into single-use aliquots to avoid freeze/thaw cycles.
- Record the lot number and keep its certificate with your notes. For quantitative work, use the measured content and formula on the certificate, not the label mass.
Frequently asked questions
What is epitalon?
Epitalon is the synthetic tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly. It was built from the amino acid makeup of a bovine pineal extract. Mass spectrometry later found it within a pineal polypeptide complex (Khavinson et al., 2017). It is studied in insect, rodent, primate and cell-culture models.
Is epitalon the same as epithalon or epithalamin?
Epitalon, epithalon and epithalone are spellings of the same four-residue peptide. Epithalamin is different. It is a peptide extract of bovine pineal gland, and the tetrapeptide was designed from its makeup. PubChem lists the extract name among the synonyms for the peptide record. This is a common source of confusion when comparing papers (PubChem CID 219042).
What does the telomerase research actually show?
The first cell-culture report described telomerase activity and telomere elongation in telomerase-negative human fetal fibroblasts (Khavinson et al., 2003). A 2025 study from an unrelated group found telomere lengthening in normal and cancer cell lines. This ran through two different pathways (Al-Dulaimi et al., 2025). That paper has a published correction on file. These are cell-culture findings. No controlled human trial has tested the question.
How much of the epitalon literature comes from one group?
Most of it. About two thirds of the PubMed records naming the peptide list V. Kh. Khavinson or V. N. Anisimov as an author. Many appear in Russian-language gerontology journals. Work by other groups exists, including the 2022 and 2025 cell studies above. But the body of evidence is not broadly replicated. The rat pineal perifusion study found no effect on melatonin secretion. Yet even that study was a collaboration with the St Petersburg group (Djeridane et al., 2003).
How should epitalon powder be stored?
Keep the lyophilized powder at -20°C and protected from light. After reconstitution, store the solution at 2 to 8°C, protected from light. Avoid freeze/thaw cycles. These are the conditions listed on the product page.
Where can researchers buy epitalon?
Disguised Alpha sells it for laboratory research. It is third-party tested, with the certificate published on the product page: Epitalon (10MG and 50MG).
Related compounds and guides
- Pinealon: the tripeptide Glu-Asp-Arg from the same research program.
- Vesugen: another short peptide from the same literature.
- Cartalax
- Pinealon research guide
- Vesugen research guide
- DSIP research guide
- COA portal: every published certificate, by lot.
This product is for research use only. It has not been evaluated for safety or effectiveness in humans. Not for human consumption. All products are intended for laboratory research purposes only.