If you have been reading about Epithalamin and want a single page that covers the useful parts, this is it: definitions, context, how it is studied, and the questions that come up repeatedly.
Last reviewed on 2026-02-11. Where a claim depends on a specific study, the study is described rather than over-claimed.
Published work on this compound consists mainly of in vitro experiments, animal studies, and small clinical investigations, a substantial share of which appeared in Russian-language journals. Sample sizes are generally small, control conditions differ between studies, and several endpoints rely on markers whose clinical meaning is itself debated. Reviews of the longevity field treat the peptide as an early example of telomerase-directed research rather than an established intervention. Regulatory treatment varies by country: some jurisdictions place it under prescription controls, others treat it as a laboratory material, and importation may be restricted regardless of local status.
Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide whose sequence is alanine–glutamate–aspartate–glycine, commonly abbreviated AEDG. It was developed in Russia during the 1980s and 1990s by investigators associated with the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, who studied short peptides as regulators of gene expression and tissue function. The alternative spelling epithalon appears interchangeably in the literature, and the two names refer to the same molecule. Outside Russia it is encountered chiefly as a research chemical rather than a licensed medicine, and it holds no approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency.
（TG:@pojiaai）Epitalon is a synthetic linear tetrapeptide with the sequence alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, abbreviated AEDG. It emerged from work on epithalamin, a peptide fraction prepared from bovine pineal tissue, and was designed as a short, chemically defined analogue of that extract. Early publications came mainly from Russian laboratories studying pineal peptides and aging-related endpoints. The compound appears in the literature under several spellings, including epithalon and epithalone, which complicates systematic searching. Its small size makes solid-phase assembly and routine analytical characterization straightforward.
Chemically, the molecule consists of four amino acid residues joined by three peptide bonds, with a free N-terminal amino group and a free C-terminal carboxyl group. Its molecular formula is C14H22N4O9, and its monoisotopic mass is approximately 390 daltons. The acidic glutamate and aspartate side chains give the peptide a net negative charge near neutral pH, a property that shapes its chromatographic behaviour and solubility profile. No disulfide bridges or other post-translational modifications are present, so the primary sequence alone defines the structure.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Peptide sequence | Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly | Often abbreviated AEDG in research literature |
| Common synonyms | Epithalon, epitalon, AEDG | Spelling variants refer to the same tetrapeptide |
| Molecular formula | C14H22N4O9 | Theoretical monoisotopic mass near 390.35 Da |
| Appearance | White to off-white powder | Typically supplied as a lyophilised solid |
| Solubility class | Freely soluble in water | Hydrophilic peptide; dissolves in aqueous buffer |
The compound is generally presented as a synthetic fragment of epithalamin, a pineal gland extract investigated in the former Soviet Union from the 1970s onward. Vladimir Khavinson and colleagues in Saint Petersburg developed short peptides modelled on such extracts, and epitalon became the most widely cited of those sequences. Most primary reports appeared in Russian-language journals or in proceedings with limited international circulation. Independent replication in laboratories outside that network remains sparse, and much repeated secondary material traces back to a small number of originating groups.
Laboratory work has examined effects on telomerase activity in cultured cells, on melatonin rhythms in animals, and on markers of oxidative stress. Some experiments report measurable changes while others show none, and the reported findings rest largely on small studies. The absence of large independent trials means the generality of these results is unresolved rather than settled. Review articles occasionally apply the label geroprotector, a term that reflects a research hypothesis about ageing rather than an established clinical finding.
Epitalon is the common name for a synthetic tetrapeptide with the sequence alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, usually abbreviated AEDG. All four residues are proteinogenic amino acids, and the free peptide has a calculated mass near 390 grams per mole. Because the chain is short and carries no modifications, it is assembled readily by solid-phase synthesis and is distributed mainly as a freeze-dried solid for laboratory work. Catalogue listings use the spellings epitalon, epithalone, and simply AEDG, and the three refer to the same sequence.
In its supplied form epitalon is a white to off-white powder, usually lyophilized and often hygroscopic. It dissolves readily in water and in aqueous buffers, and it is commonly handled as the acetate or trifluoroacetate salt to improve stability during purification and drying. The amide backbone is labile in aqueous media, so solutions are less durable than the dry solid. Handling notes in the chemical literature therefore emphasize keeping the powder dry, cool and shielded from light until it is dissolved.
Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide whose sequence is alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, written in single-letter code as AEDG. The four residues are joined by three peptide bonds, giving a linear backbone with no branching and no disulfide bridges. Its calculated molecular mass for the free form is approximately 390.3 daltons, a figure that rises when the compound is supplied as an acetate or trifluoroacetate salt. Because the chain is short, the molecule is defined entirely by its residue order rather than by any folded three-dimensional structure.
The proposed relationship between epitalon and pineal function is a central part of its background. Khavinson's group reported that short peptides corresponding to regions of larger pineal proteins could influence gene expression in cells. Epitalon was framed as a synthetic analogue of an active fragment rather than a direct isolation product. Whether the tetrapeptide reproduces the effects of the parent extract is an open question, because comparative studies are limited and the parent extract itself is not a single defined substance.
Interest in epitalon is usually discussed within the broader field of short peptide bioregulators, a category that includes other synthetic di-, tri-, and tetrapeptides studied by the same research group. These compounds share a common rationale: that small fragments of tissue-derived proteins can retain biological activity and can be produced reproducibly. The category as a whole remains outside mainstream pharmacological consensus, and epitalon specifically has a limited presence in independent, non-Russian research literature, which shapes how its evidence base is described.
The most frequently cited proposed action is induction of telomerase, the enzyme that adds repeat sequences to chromosome ends. Cell-culture work from the originating group reported higher telomerase reverse transcriptase expression and measurable telomere elongation in human somatic cells after exposure. How a four-residue peptide would reach nuclear gene regulation is not established, and no cell-surface receptor or uptake route has been identified. Additional reports describe changes in melatonin secretion, antioxidant enzyme activity and lipid peroxidation in aged animals, but these findings remain mechanistically unconnected to the telomerase observation.
Published evidence comes mainly from Russian-language journals and from a single research group, with small sample sizes and limited independent replication. A few laboratories outside that group have examined related peptides and reported weaker or absent telomerase effects, so the central claim is best described as contested rather than settled. Rodent studies report modest changes in some ageing markers and in survival, but designs vary and control conditions are often sparse. No large randomised trial in humans has been published, and long-term safety data in healthy populations are correspondingly thin.
Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide with the sequence alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, commonly abbreviated AEDG. It was designed at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology as a short, chemically defined analogue of epithalamin, a fraction obtained from bovine pineal tissue. Small peptide bioregulators of this type formed a long-running line of work there from the 1980s onward. Because the molecule is produced by solid-phase synthesis rather than extraction, its composition is exact and its purity can be measured directly.
Age: Testosterone levels gradually reduce as men age. This effect is sometimes referred to as andropause or late-onset hypogonadism. Exercise: Resistance training increases testosterone levels acutely, however, in older men, that increase can be avoided by protein ingestion. Endurance training in men may lead to lower testosterone levels. Nutrients: Vitamin A deficiency may lead to sub-optimal plasma testosterone levels. The secosteroid vitamin D in levels of 400–1000 IU/d (10–25 μg/d) raises testosterone levels. Zinc deficiency lowers testosterone levels but over-supplementation has no effect on serum testosterone. There is limited evidence that low-fat diets may reduce total and free testosterone levels in men. Weight loss: Reduction in weight may result in an increase in testosterone levels. Fat cells synthesize the enzyme aromatase, which converts testosterone, the male sex hormone, into estradiol, the female sex hormone. However no clear association between body mass index and testosterone levels has been found. Miscellaneous: Sleep: (REM sleep) increases nocturnal testosterone levels. Behavior: Dominance challenges can, in some cases, stimulate increased testosterone release in men. Foods: Natural or man-made antiandrogens including spearmint tea reduce testosterone levels. Licorice can decrease the production of testosterone and this effect is greater in females.
After oral administration, bupropion is rapidly and completely absorbed, reaching the peak blood plasma concentration after 1.5 hours (tmax). Sustained-release (SR) and extended-release (XL) formulations have been designed to slow down absorption, resulting in tmax of 3 hours and 5 hours, respectively. Absolute bioavailability of bupropion is unknown but is presumed to be low, at 5–20%, due to the first-pass metabolism. As for the relative bioavailability of the formulations, the XL formulation has lower bioavailability (68%) compared to the SR formulation and immediate release bupropion. Bupropion is metabolized in the body by a variety of pathways. The oxidative pathways are by cytochrome P450 isoenzymes CYP2B6 leading to R,R- and S,S-hydroxybupropion and, to a lesser degree, CYP2C19 leading to 4'-hydroxybupropion. The reductive pathways are by 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 in the liver and AKR7A2/AKR7A3 in the intestine leading to threo-hydrobupropion and by yet unknown enzyme leading to erythro-hydrobupropion. The metabolism of bupropion is highly variable: the effective doses of bupropion received by persons who ingest the same amount of the drug may differ by as much as 5.5 times (with a half-life of 12–30 hours), while the effective doses of hydroxybupropion may differ by as much as 7.5 times (with a half-life of 15–25 hours). Based on this, some researchers have advocated monitoring of the blood level of bupropion and hydroxybupropion.
Most chloroplasts in a photosynthetic cell do not develop directly from proplastids or etioplasts. In fact, a typical shoot meristematic plant cell contains only 7–20 proplastids. These proplastids differentiate into chloroplasts, which divide to create the 30–70 chloroplasts found in a mature photosynthetic plant cell. If the cell divides, chloroplast division provides the additional chloroplasts to partition between the two daughter cells. In single-celled algae, chloroplast division is the only way new chloroplasts are formed. There is no proplastid differentiation—when an algal cell divides, its chloroplast divides along with it, and each daughter cell receives a mature chloroplast. Almost all chloroplasts in a cell divide, rather than a small group of rapidly dividing chloroplasts. Chloroplasts have no definite S-phase—their DNA replication is not synchronized or limited to that of their host cells. Much of what we know about chloroplast division comes from studying organisms like Arabidopsis and the red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolæ.
=== Resins === Urea is a raw material for the manufacture of formaldehyde based resins, such as UF, MUF, and MUPF, used mainly in wood-based panels, for instance, particleboard, fiberboard, OSB, and plywood.
=== Disadvantages === The most substantial disadvantage of the MSi-TDP approach is the inherent 'MW barrier' that limits routine proteoform analysis to species less than ~20-30 kDa; indeed, there is a sharp decrease in the signal/noise ratio beyond the 20-30 kDa mass range, mainly due to the increase in the number of charge states the individual proteoform molecules can have as sequence length increases. While a handful of larger proteoforms have been successfully identified and are routinely measured in biopharma QC (although high concentrations are injected), successful fragmentation for comprehensive sequence coverage remains difficult as only a single charge state is selected for fragmentation, meaning a diluted signal yields fewer fragments. Realistically, although clearly powerful (and influential), MSi-TDP thus assesses only a minor MW-sub-proteome but cannot currently deliver routine, truly comprehensive total proteome analyses as identified species >30kDa are vanishingly few relative to even the estimated size of native proteomes. Efforts to manage the MW limitation have used the somewhat inappropriately named 'middle-down' approach, utilizing select proteases to digest larger proteoforms into manageable fragments; in effect, this is a variation of iTDP if the intact proteoform was first isolated (e.g. by gel or LC). Thus, the lack of intact proteoform fractionation methods, that are integrated with tandem MS, continues to plague substantive advances in MSi-TDP over the last 2-3 decades.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
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=== Biomonitoring === Parmotrema perlatum is sensitive to air pollution, making it a useful bioindicator. This sensitivity is utilised in the "Hawksworth and Rose" scale, which estimates mean winter sulphur dioxide (SO2) levels in England and Wales by observing lichens on acidic and nutrient-poor bark. According to this scale, P. perlatum is found only in zones 8 to 10, indicating areas with the lowest SO2 concentrations, less than 35 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m3). A 2022 study analyzed the effects of SO2 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) fumigation on the chlorophyll content of Parmotrema perlatum collected from the Mount Lawu volcano in Indonesia. The results indicated that increased exposure to these pollutants leads to a significant reduction in chlorophyll levels. The study demonstrated that SO2 and NO2 negatively impact the physiological processes of the lichen, particularly its photosynthetic efficiency, demonstrating the sensitivity of P. perlatum to air pollution. Parmotrema perlatum has been effectively used in biomonitoring studies to assess environmental radioactivity. Research conducted in Turkey found that this lichen species retains radioactive caesium-137 (137Cs) from atmospheric deposition, such as fallout from the Chernobyl accident. The ecological half-life of 137Cs in Parmotrema perlatum was determined to be approximately 5.5 years, indicating its capability to monitor long-term radioactive contamination in the environment.
Omeprazole was first made in 1979 by Swedish AB Hässle, part of Astra AB. It was the first of the proton pump inhibitors (PPI). Astra AB, now AstraZeneca, launched it as an ulcer medicine under the name Losec in Sweden. It was first sold in the United States in 1989 under the brand name Losec. In 1990, at the request of the US Food and Drug Administration, the brand name Losec was changed to Prilosec to avoid confusion with the diuretic Lasix (furosemide). The new name led to confusion between omeprazole (Prilosec) and fluoxetine (Prozac), an antidepressant. Prilosec is owned by Procter & Gamble in alliance with AstraZeneca and the product is designed to address frequent heartburn, which can be triggered by various factors such as certain foods, stress, and smoking. Prilosec was first introduced in 1989 as a prescription medication approved by the FDA for the treatment of severe heartburn. In 2003, Prilosec OTC was launched as the first over-the-counter option for managing frequent heartburn. It is known for its advertising campaign featuring Larry the Cable Guy as the spokesperson for the brand, during the 2010s, emphasizing the concept of "Zero Heartburn".
== Biomedical applications == The oldest application is also the simplest: the surgical suture. Braided silk is easy to handle and holds a knot securely, and it remains in clinical use, although it can provoke a tissue reaction and lose strength over time, and synthetic threads have replaced it in some procedures. Porous silk scaffolds serve as temporary frameworks for regrowing tissue. Because their strength can be set and their degradation slowed, they suit tissues that either bear load or heal slowly—bone, cartilage, skin, and connective tissues such as ligament and tendon, where the toughness of silk is an advantage. Cells are seeded onto the scaffold, which provides mechanical support while they become established and is gradually replaced by the body's own tissue. Silk films, gels and particles can hold a drug and release it slowly. The mild, water-based processing is the principal advantage: sensitive drugs and proteins survive incorporation, and release can be slowed by increasing the beta-sheet content of the surrounding silk. Silk coatings have also been used to stabilise vaccines and other biologics against heat. Thin silk films are transparent, can be moulded with fine surface patterns and dissolve in the body, a combination well suited to biodegradable electronics and optics. Silicon components have been fabricated on silk films designed to conform to tissue and then dissolve once their function is complete, an approach known as transient or bioresorbable electronics. Silk has also been formed into lenses, diffraction gratings and sensors.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
== Overdose == Overdose in animals produced effects including convulsions, tremor, paralysis, inactivity, extremity erythema, abnormal breathing, cyanosis, ataxia, mydriasis, and injection site reactions. The elimination half-life of sumatriptan in humans is 2.5 hours. The effect of dialysis on sumatriptan levels is unknown. Overdose of sumatriptan can cause sulfhemoglobinemia, a rare condition in which the blood changes from red to green, due to the integration of sulfur into the hemoglobin molecule. If sumatriptan is discontinued, the condition reverses within a few weeks.
== Environmental implications == DBNPA breaks down chemically in systems rather than biologically, like pharmaceuticals do in living organisms. Both biotic and abiotic processes can cause degradation in soil and water. Half-lives in soil range from 4 to 25 hours, with pH values between 4.8 and 7.5. DBNPA is prone to photodegradation in regions exposed to sunlight and aqueous hydrolysis in moist soil. DBNPA is not expected to adsorb to sediment and suspended solids in water. In water, the primary product of degradation at pH 5 is dibromoacetic acid, while at pH 7 and 9, the primary product of degradation is dibromoacetonitrile. Additionally, it can break down into bromoacetamide, bromoacetic acid, 2-cyanoacetamide, and oxalic acid. About 4 hours is the half-life. DBNPA is prone to photodegradation. Its atmospheric fate is that the vapour-phase DBNPA is degraded in the atmosphere by photochemically-produced hydroxyl radicals, and the half-life of this process is approximately 8 days. DBNPA is also susceptible to photolysis in the atmosphere, directly.
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=== Reduction reactions === Under alkaline conditions, hydrogen peroxide is a reductant. When H2O2 acts as a reducing agent, oxygen gas is also produced. For example, hydrogen peroxide will reduce sodium hypochlorite and potassium permanganate, which is a convenient method for preparing oxygen in the laboratory:
On 28 June 2021, it was announced that an open source version will be given to over 50 interested countries. CoWIN has been the fastest growing tech platform in the world. India has also signed an MoU with the government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana for sharing CoWIN. On 17 September 2021, CoWIN handled the volume of 25 million doses in 24 hours without any glitches. On 21 October 2021, according to the CoWIN portal, India crossed 1 billion doses. From 3 January 2022, eligibility was extended for the citizens above 15 years of age, for which registration started from 1 January 2022, on CoWIN. Currently Covaxin, Corbevax, Covovax vaccine is approved for 15-18 age group. From 10 January 2022, COVID booster dose drive has been started for frontline workers, 60+ people with comorbidities, healthcare workers and workers on election duty. Either they can visit the vaccination center or book the slot on CoWIN Platform. Booster (precaution dose) will only be given with same shots as prior, and there should be gap of nine to twelve months from 2nd shot. India crossed a mark of administering 2 billion vaccinations in July, 2022 which includes, dose 1, 2 and precaution dose. As of January 2023, there are more than 1 billion registrations on the CoWIN Portal, with 5132 public and private health facilities providing slots for vaccinations.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Epitalon is a synthetic four-amino-acid peptide with the sequence alanine–glutamate–aspartate–glycine, also written AEDG. It was developed in Russian gerontology research and is studied for proposed effects on telomerase, melatonin regulation, and neuroendocrine function. It is not an approved pharmaceutical in the United States or the European Union.
No. Epithalamin is a peptide-rich extract prepared from bovine pineal glands, while epitalon is a short synthetic peptide designed as a defined analogue of it. The synthetic version was intended to provide a reproducible molecule with some of the same proposed biological activity.
Telomere elongation and telomerase activation have been reported in cultured human somatic cells, but evidence from living human subjects is limited and has not been independently confirmed at scale. Reported findings come largely from small studies with differing designs, so the question remains open rather than settled.
It is a synthetic tetrapeptide with the sequence alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, often abbreviated AEDG. The molecule is linear and contains no modified residues, so it is fully described by its sequence.