Pinealon is a synthetic three-amino-acid peptide, Glu-Asp-Arg, from Vladimir Khavinson’s Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, studied mainly in cells and rats.
Pinealon belongs to the short-peptide “bioregulators” developed by Khavinson’s group, which argues that these small chains act on DNA directly. A 2011 Rejuvenation Research study found that pinealon reduced reactive oxygen species and necrotic cell death in cultured nerve cells, neutrophils and PC12 cells. A 2011 paper in Biochemistry (Moscow) reported that labeled pinealon entered the nuclei of HeLa cells and bound specific DNA sequences in a test tube.
The animal work comes from the same circle. A 2012 rat study co-authored by Khavinson reported better learning in the offspring of pregnant rats fed excess methionine when the mothers received pinealon. Further rat studies on hypoxia and aging appeared in the Russian journal Advances in Gerontology between 2011 and 2015.
No. Pinealon has no FDA approval, and as of October 2026 ClinicalTrials.gov lists no registered clinical trial testing it in people.
The human record is thin and Russian-language. Advances in Gerontology published a 2015 study of 32 patients with organic brain syndrome that gave pinealon alongside a second tripeptide, vesugen, and a 2012 study of locomotive crews. Neither abstract describes a placebo group, and we found no human trial of pinealon run outside Russia.
Pinealon reaches buyers as a research chemical, so no regulator checks what is in the vial. A three-amino-acid peptide is cheap to make, and every lyophilized powder looks the same. Only a lab assay shows whether a vial holds Glu-Asp-Arg at the labeled amount, holds a different peptide, or holds far less than it claims.
Before trusting a pinealon label, check that batch’s published result on our latest tests page or in Janoshik’s public results database. Our index has no published results for pinealon yet. When the first published result arrives, a vendor leaderboard appears above.