Pinealon

Molecular identity

Sequence

Glu-Asp-Arg

Formula

C15H26N6O8

Molecular weight

418.40 g/mol

CAS

175175-23-2

PubChem CID

10273502

What it acts on

• Reactive oxygen species accumulation — in cerebellar granule cells, neutrophils and PC12 cells the literature reports dose-dependent restriction of ROS build-up under oxidative stress of both receptor-dependent and receptor-independent origin.
• ERK1/2 (MAPK) cascade — the protective effect observed in culture is accompanied by a delayed time course of ERK1/2 activation rather than by an immediate one.
• Cell cycle and a proposed direct interaction with the cell genome — cell-cycle modulation continues at the upper end of the concentration range while the ROS and survival readouts are already saturated, and the authors read that split as a second, antioxidant-independent mode of action.
• Caspase-3 activity and free-radical processes in aged rat brain — both were measured endpoints, and in the one head-to-head comparison the effect of Pinealon was less pronounced than that of the comparator Cortexin.
• Brain monoamine pools — in 18-month-old rats the cited work reports accumulation of adrenergic mediators under acute hypobaric hypoxia and of serotonin in the cerebral cortex under mild hypothermia.

What the studies report

Each item below summarises the paper it is numbered to, written from that paper's own abstract. The badge says how the evidence was produced.

1. 1.
   reviewJ Am Acad Orthop Surg Glob Res Rev (2026)

   A 2026 narrative review of therapeutic peptides in orthopaedics. Pinealon appears in it only as a classification: it is grouped with epithalon and delta sleep-inducing peptide among agents the authors describe as targeting circadian and mitochondrial regulators, with no primary data for the compound itself. The review's own conclusion is the part that matters here — the authors call the preclinical work promising but state that clinical trials are currently lacking across the peptides they survey.

2. 2.
   animal modelInt J Clin Exp Med (2012)

   A rat study of experimental prenatal hyperhomocysteinemia induced by alimentary methionine loading during pregnancy, with pinealon (Glu-Asp-Arg) administered to the pregnant animals. The offspring are reported to show improved spatial orientation and learning, and neurons isolated from their cerebellum to show less reactive oxygen species accumulation and fewer necrotic cells. The abstract states no group sizes, no blinding and no effect sizes, and the authors present the result as agreeing with their own earlier in-vitro data — a same-group confirmation rather than an independent replication.

3. 3.
   in vitroRejuvenation Res (2011)

   The core mechanism paper of this set, run in three cell types — cerebellar granule cells, neutrophils and pheochromocytoma PC12 cells. It reports dose-dependent restriction of reactive oxygen species accumulation under receptor-dependent and receptor-independent oxidative stress, reduced necrotic death by the propidium iodide test, a delayed time course of ERK1/2 activation and modification of the cell cycle. Its conclusion that the peptide interacts directly with the cell genome is an inference drawn from the concentration-response curves separating — ROS and mortality saturating while cell-cycle modulation continues — and not from any binding or gene-expression measurement reported in the abstract.

4. 4.
   animal modelAdv Gerontol (2015)

   A Russian-language gerontology study in 18-month-old rats under two stress models, acute hypobaric hypoxia and mild hypothermia, comparing Pinealon with Cortexin. It is the least flattering paper in the set: Cortexin is reported to act more strongly than Pinealon on free-radical processes and on brain caspase-3 activity. Both preparations were associated with accumulation of adrenergic mediators under hypoxia and of serotonin in the cerebral cortex under hypothermia, which the authors offer as something that may underlie a geroprotective effect — a proposal rather than a demonstration, and the abstract carries no statistics.

Used in research on