Scientific Reference
Pinealon (EDR)
Evidence profile: Controlled human evidence
Pinealon sits on a contested premise. It is the synthetic tripeptide Glu-Asp-Arg, one of a set of very short bioregulator peptides described by a Russian research group whose proposal is that peptides this small act on gene expression directly, with no conventional receptor involved. That proposal has had little testing by anyone outside the group that made it. The literature is correspondingly narrow: cultured neurons and other cell types, rodent studies on the nervous system and oxidative stress, and computational modelling of how three residues might bind DNA, nearly all of it from that group and its collaborators. Human data are very limited.
Mechanism of Action
The mechanism on offer from the originating group is that EDR crosses into cells and into their nuclei, binds particular DNA sequences or histone proteins, and changes the expression of genes nearby. The support is mostly molecular modelling and in vitro binding work rather than cellular demonstration. Alongside it sit reported effects: in cultured neurons and other cells under oxidative stress, reduced accumulation of reactive oxygen species and altered ERK1/2 signalling; in rodent brain tissue, changed markers of oxidative damage. No receptor has been identified, and confirmation of any of this from independent laboratories is limited.
Molecular Information
- Type: Tripeptide
- Molecular weight: 418.40 g/mol
- Molecular formula: C15H26N6O8
Published Research
[The peptide correction of neurotic disorders among professional truck-drivers]
Bashkireva AS et al. · Advances in gerontology = Uspekhi gerontologii · 2012 · Clinical
PMID 23734521 — View on PubMed