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Epitalon Background And Discovery — Hands-On Walkthrough

By Editorial Desk · published 2025-12-16 · last reviewed 2026-01-23 · Topic

AEDG raises a handful of sensible questions. This page answers them in order, starting with the fundamentals and moving to applications.

Reviewed 2026-01-23. Anything still debated is marked as such rather than presented as settled.

Epitalon Background and Discovery

Epitalon is a synthetic four-amino-acid peptide with the sequence alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, commonly abbreviated AEDG. Its molecular formula is C14H22N4O9, and its calculated molar mass is approximately 390.35 grams per mole. The compound is a short fragment related to a peptide fraction isolated from bovine pineal gland extracts, and it is normally supplied as a lyophilised powder intended for laboratory research. It is not a registered pharmaceutical product in most countries.

The peptide emerged from research carried out in Saint Petersburg from the late 1980s onward, where investigators searched for shorter active fragments of a pineal preparation known as epithalamin. The name epitalon was chosen to reflect that parent extract. Early reports described effects on neuroendocrine markers and on the lifespan of laboratory animals. Much of that work appeared in Russian-language journals, with English translations following later, which affects how readily the original protocols can be assessed by outside groups.

Background and Chemical Identity

Epitalon is a synthetic linear tetrapeptide with the sequence alanine–glutamate–aspartate–glycine, abbreviated AEDG. Its molecular formula is C14H22N4O9 and the calculated mass is approximately 390.35 g/mol. The compound is made by solid-phase peptide synthesis rather than extracted from tissue, although early work described it as a short fragment of a peptide fraction obtained from bovine pineal extract. In the research literature the spelling epitalon and the variant epithalone both appear, while AEDG is the standard code used in peptide nomenclature.

Several names circulate for the same molecule, including epitalon, epithalone, epithalamin tetrapeptide, and the sequence code AEDG. A CAS registry number, 307297-39-8, is commonly cited for it, though catalogue entries should be checked against supplier documentation because mislabelled records occur. In its usual form the peptide carries free amino and carboxyl termini and is neither glycosylated nor lipidated. Researchers distinguish the defined tetrapeptide from epithalamin itself, a crude pineal preparation containing many peptides that is not chemically characterised.

Epitalon at a glance

PropertyValueNotes
Molecular formulaC14H22N4O9Derived from the four-residue sequence
Molar massAbout 390.35 g/molFree peptide, counter-ion not included
AppearanceWhite to off-white powderLyophilised solid from aqueous solution
Water solubilityFreely solubleShort, polar peptide chain
Common synonymsAEDG; epithaloneCatalogues use the names interchangeably

Epitalon Background And Identification

The parent extract epithalamin was characterised as a low-molecular-weight fraction of pineal tissue rather than a single defined chemical entity. Researchers fractionated it and tested successive fragments for activity, a screening approach typical of peptide discovery work in that era. Epitalon emerged from that process as one of the shorter sequences of interest. Because the original extract was never fully resolved into individual components, claims about which constituent drives a given effect rest on inference. This distinction matters when reading older reports that attribute extract observations to the tetrapeptide itself.

Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide with the residue sequence alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, commonly abbreviated AEDG. Its monoisotopic mass is approximately 390.35 daltons, and it is usually supplied as a lyophilised trifluoroacetate or acetate salt. The compound was derived from a pineal gland extract called epithalamin, a heterogeneous preparation investigated in the former Soviet Union. Researchers associated with the Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology described the tetrapeptide as a constituent fragment of that extract. Commercial material is offered as a laboratory reagent rather than as a finished pharmaceutical product.

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Supporting material

=== Albums === I'm a Fool — Reprise R (Mono)/RS (Stereo) 6176 — U.S. No. 51, September 1965 Our Time's Coming — Reprise R/RS 6194 — U.S. No. 119, February 1966 Memories Are Made of This — Reprise R/RS 6198 – 1966 Souvenir — Reprise R/RS 6224 – 1966 Follow Me Original Soundtrack — Uni 73056 – 1969 – Three songs sung by Dino, Desi & Billy, "Thru Spray Colored Glasses" (co-written by Stu Phillips and David Gates), "Like The Wind And Sea" (co-written by Phillips and Ronnie Franklin) and "Just Lookin' For Someone" (co-written by Phillips and Gates) The Rebel Kind: The Best of Dino, Desi & Billy — Sundazed, 1996

=== Artistic use === Synthetic colorants gained popularity as quickly with artists as with industry. The painters of the impressionist school in particular were famous early adopters. Critical reviews of Impressionists’ blues made comparisons to laundresses’ tubs, in particular the practice of laundry bluing, and to chemical waste dumped into the Seine by dye factories. One critic accused Edgar Degas, known for experiments in aquatint, pastel and oil painting as having an obsession with "chemistry," evoking a laboratory in description of his studio. Interestingly, Degas was known to be in correspondence with chemist Marcellin Berthelot, considered the father of organic synthetic chemistry in France. Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s later paintings relied heavily on alizarin crimson. He also employed cobalt blue or a mixture of ultramarine and cobalt blue, a synthetic pigment. New pigments and dyes were not limited to the artists of Europe, even Japanese printmakers were using dyes like rosaniline as early as 1863.

Napoleon: A Life. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-698-17628-7. Ryan, A. N. (1953). "The Causes of the British Attack upon Copenhagen in 1807". The English Historical Review. 68 (266): 37–55. doi:10.1093/ehr/lxviii.cclxvi.37. ISSN 0013-8266. Schäfer, Anton (2002). Zeittafel der Rechtsgeschichte. Von den Anfängen über Rom bis 1919. Mit Schwerpunkt Österreich und zeitgenössischen Bezügen (in German) (3rd ed.). Edition Europa Verlag. ISBN 3-9500616-8-1. Schroeder, Paul W. (1994). The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820654-5. Sherwig, John M. (1969). Guineas and Gunpowder: British Foreign Aid in the Wars with France, 1793–1815. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-36775-3. Shlapentokh, Dmitry (1997). The French Revolution and the Russian Anti-Democratic Tradition: A Case of False Consciousness. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4128-2397-5. Stoker, Donald; Schneid, Frederick C.; Blanton, Harold D. (2008). Conscription in the Napoleonic Era: A Revolution in Military Affairs?. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-203-67404-8. Sutherland, Donald M. G. (2008). The French Revolution and Empire: The Quest for a Civic Order. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-75826-7. Tone, John Lawrence (1996). "Napoleon's uncongenial sea: Guerrilla warfare in Navarre during the Peninsular War, 1808–14". European History Quarterly. 26 (3): 355–382. doi:10.1177/026569149602600302. S2CID 144885121. Tone, John Lawrence (2010). "Partisan Warfare in Spain and Total War". In Chickering, Roger; Förster, Stig (eds.). War in an Age of Revolution, 1775–1815. Cambridge UP. p. 243.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Supporting material

=== Muscle involvement === Diagnosing MCTD involves identification of inflammatory myopathy that is histologically and clinically identical to polymyositis (PM). The majority of persons with MCTD do not experience clinical weakness. People with MCTD typically have mild myositis, with normal muscle enzymes and electromyographic results. Some people may be completely asymptomatic. Myositis can be severe and difficult to differentiate from conventional dermatomyositis. Myalgia is a prevalent complaint among patients with MCTD.

=== Apoptosis === One of the most studied roles of ceramide pertains to its function as a proapoptotic molecule. Apoptosis, or Type I programmed cell death, is essential for the maintenance of normal cellular homeostasis and is an important physiological response to many forms of cellular stress. Ceramide accumulation has been found following treatment of cells with a number of apoptotic agents, including ionizing radiation, UV light, TNF-alpha, and chemotherapeutic agents. This suggests a role for ceramide in the biological responses of all these agents. Because of its apoptosis-inducing effects in cancer cells, ceramide has been termed the "tumor suppressor lipid". Several studies have attempted to define further the specific role of ceramide in the events of cell death and some evidence suggests ceramide functions upstream of the mitochondria in inducing apoptosis. However, owing to the conflicting and variable nature of studies into the role of ceramide in apoptosis, the mechanism by which this lipid regulates apoptosis remains elusive.

In the House of Lords, the Liberals had lost most of their members, who in the 1890s "became Conservative in all but name." The government could force the unwilling king to create new Liberal peers, and that threat did prove decisive in the battle for dominance of Commons over Lords in 1911.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Notes from published material

Yeasts, like all fungi, may have asexual and sexual reproductive cycles. The most common mode of vegetative growth in yeast is asexual reproduction by budding, where a small bud (also known as a bleb or daughter cell) is formed on the parent cell. The nucleus of the parent cell splits, producing a daughter nucleus that migrates into the daughter cell. The bud then continues to grow until it separates from the parent cell, forming a new cell. The daughter cell produced during the budding process is generally smaller than the mother cell. Some yeasts, including Schizosaccharomyces pombe, reproduce by fission instead of budding, and thereby creating two identically sized daughter cells. In general, under high-stress conditions such as nutrient starvation, haploid cells will die; under the same conditions, however, diploid cells can undergo sporulation, entering sexual reproduction (meiosis) and producing a variety of haploid spores, which can go on to mate (conjugate), reforming the diploid. The haploid fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a facultative sexual microorganism that can undergo mating when nutrients are limited. Exposure of S. pombe to hydrogen peroxide, an agent that causes oxidative stress leading to oxidative DNA damage, strongly induces mating and the formation of meiotic spores. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae reproduces by mitosis as diploid cells when nutrients are abundant, but when starved, this yeast undergoes meiosis to form haploid spores. Haploid cells may then reproduce asexually by mitosis. Katz Ezov et al.

=== Chemotherapy metabolite === Cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide treatment results in the production of acrolein. Acrolein produced during cyclophosphamide treatment collects in the urinary bladder and if untreated can cause hemorrhagic cystitis.

exon Any part of a gene that encodes a part of the final mature messenger RNA produced by that gene after introns have been removed by alternative splicing. The term refers to both the sequence as it exists within a DNA molecule and to the corresponding sequence in RNA transcripts.

While orphan drug status is given to drugs with "no reasonable expectation" of profitability, some orphan drugs have gone on to net large profits and/or receive widespread use. The topic of profit in the aftermath of the ODA was addressed in November 2013 in the Seattle Times where the following quote appeared:

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Frequently asked questions

What is epitalon made of?

It is a synthetic tetrapeptide built from alanine, glutamate, aspartate and glycine. The four residues are joined by standard peptide bonds, giving a linear chain rather than a branched structure.

Why is it called epitalon?

The name derives from epithalamin, a pineal gland extract studied in the former Soviet Union. Researchers proposed that short fragments of that extract carried the biological activity of interest.

Is epitalon approved for medical use?

No major regulatory agency has approved it as a medicine. It is handled as a research chemical, and products sold under this name are not standardised drugs with defined clinical labelling.

Is epitalon a natural substance?

It is a synthetic tetrapeptide. Its sequence was derived from research on peptide fractions of bovine pineal extract, and the intact AEDG sequence has not been demonstrated as an abundant free peptide in human tissue.

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