Epitalon

Relevance to Vision Research

Epitalon is one of the most-studied short peptides in the retinal-longevity literature, where interest centers on telomerase regulation in retinal cells and on observations in inherited retinal degeneration.

An animated map of the visual pathway, from the eye through the brain to the systemic processes of aging. Highlighted nodes mark the structures Epitalon is studied against.

Illustrative research map : highlighted structures reflect the published in-vitro / preclinical literature, not human outcomes.

Summaries of observations reported in published in-vitro and preclinical research. These are research-model findings, not established human outcomes, and not claims of benefit, safety, or efficacy. Supplied for laboratory research use only.

Where Epitalon came from

Epitalon is the synthetic short form of something older. In the Soviet-era work of Vladimir Khavinson and colleagues, an extract of pineal tissue called epithalamin was studied for effects on aging in model organisms. Epitalon is the four-residue sequence, Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly, that the group proposed as the active core of that preparation.

Four residues is very short. That matters for how the proposed mechanism reads: rather than a receptor-binding ligand, the Khavinson literature describes these peptides as interacting directly with DNA and chromatin, with sequence-specific contacts in promoter regions. Whether that model is correct remains genuinely contested outside the group that proposed it, and a reader should hold it loosely.

The telomerase question

The claim that draws most attention is the reported induction of telomerase, specifically transcriptional regulation at the hTERT promoter. Published in-vitro work reports increased telomerase activity in cultured human somatic cells, and a portion of the retinal interest follows from studies in models of inherited retinal degeneration.

Two things are worth separating here. Telomerase induction in a cell culture is a measurable, reproducible-in-principle observation. Extrapolating from that to anything about aging in a person is a leap the data does not support, and the published work is heavily concentrated in a small number of affiliated groups, which is a limitation rather than a conspiracy.

The structural side of the question, how a four-residue peptide could adopt a defined conformation inside the hTERT promoter groove at all, is the subject of our in-silico topology note. The retinal literature is surveyed here.

What this vial is for

Catalogued as a sequence-defined peptide reference standard for nucleic-acid interaction and chromatin work: electrophoretic mobility shift assays, promoter-binding studies, telomerase activity assays in cultured cells, and structural or docking work requiring a characterised AEDG standard.

Short, highly polar peptides like AEDG are easy to synthesise and correspondingly easy to supply at variable quality. Identity is confirmed by LC-MS and purity by HPLC to a ≥99% specification.

Why It Is Used

Molecular Identity

CAS Number

307297-39-8

Molecular Formula

C₁₄H₂₂N₄O₉

Molecular Weight

390.35 g/mol

Sequence

H-Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly-OH (AEDG)

Purity

≥ 99.0% (HPLC, area)

Format

Lyophilized powder, vacuum-sealed vial

Analytical Specification

Research Context

Epitalon (AEDG) is a synthetic tetrapeptide derived from the pineal peptide preparation epithalamin. The published literature reports in-vitro and model-organism studies of its proposed interaction with chromatin and telomerase (hTERT) transcriptional regulation. Catalogued here as a sequence-defined peptide reference standard for nucleic-acid interaction and chromatin assays.