Epithalon

Epithalon (also spelled Epitalon; sequence Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly, or AEDG) is a synthetic tetrapeptide from Khavinson's short-peptide programme at the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. It was designed from the amino acid make-up of Epithalamin, an extract of cattle pineal gland, and is the most published peptide of this programme. In human fetal lung cells grown in the lab, the developers reported raised telomerase activity, longer telomeres (the caps on the ends of chromosomes) and, in a later paper, extra cell divisions (Khavinson et al., 2003). An independent UK laboratory reported longer telomeres in normal human cells through telomerase, and in breast cancer cell lines through a different route called ALT (Al-Dulaimi et al., Biogerontology 2025). In a lifelong study of female mice (54 per group), average lifespan did not change, while the longest-lived tenth lived somewhat longer. A study led from Paris found no change in melatonin release from young or old rat pineal glands in the lab (Djeridane et al., 2003). Human reports come from the developers' network, mostly in Russian journals, with no published randomised placebo-controlled trials. Long-term safety and whether lab findings apply to people are not known. Supplied for laboratory research use only.