Tetrapeptide comes up often in conversation and rarely with the context attached. Here we lay out the basics in order, then work through the practical considerations.
Last reviewed on 2025-09-05. Where a claim depends on a specific study, the study is described rather than over-claimed.
In its supplied form epitalon is a white to off-white powder, usually lyophilized and often hygroscopic. It dissolves readily in water and in aqueous buffers, and it is commonly handled as the acetate or trifluoroacetate salt to improve stability during purification and drying. The amide backbone is labile in aqueous media, so solutions are less durable than the dry solid. Handling notes in the chemical literature therefore emphasize keeping the powder dry, cool and shielded from light until it is dissolved.
Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide whose sequence is alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, written in single-letter code as AEDG. The four residues are joined by three peptide bonds, giving a linear backbone with no branching and no disulfide bridges. Its calculated molecular mass for the free form is approximately 390.3 daltons, a figure that rises when the compound is supplied as an acetate or trifluoroacetate salt. Because the chain is short, the molecule is defined entirely by its residue order rather than by any folded three-dimensional structure.
Identity and purity are usually assessed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection, frequently near 214 nanometers where the peptide bond absorbs. Mass spectrometry, most often with electrospray ionization, confirms the observed molecular mass and helps separate the intact peptide from truncated or modified forms. Amino acid analysis or tandem mass spectrometry can establish residue order. Purity is commonly quoted as an area percentage, yet such values are method-dependent, and comparisons between laboratories require matching column, gradient and detection wavelength.
Laboratory handling begins with dissolution of the lyophilized powder in water or a suitable aqueous buffer. The dry solid is the more stable form, so stock solutions are generally prepared only when required and kept cold afterwards. Repeated freezing and thawing of a solution is avoided because it encourages aggregation and gradual loss of the intact chain. Diluents and containers are selected to limit adsorption of a short peptide onto plastic surfaces and to reduce microbial growth in aqueous preparations.
Stability depends strongly on pH, temperature and the presence of oxygen and trace metals. Cleavage of the backbone proceeds faster under neutral to alkaline conditions, whereas acidic solutions tend to slow that reaction. The aspartate and glutamate side chains can undergo deamidation or imide formation over time, generating closely related impurities. Published stability data specific to epitalon are sparse, so the usable life of a given solution is best regarded as an open question that depends on buffer composition, concentration and storage temperature.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical class | Synthetic tetrapeptide | Four residues, linear chain |
| Residue sequence | Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly | Single-letter form AEDG |
| Calculated mass | 390.3 daltons | Value for the free, uncharged form |
| Appearance | White to off-white powder | Usually supplied lyophilized |
| Solubility | Freely soluble in water | Often handled as a salt form |
Proposed mechanisms centre on cell-culture observations rather than a defined receptor interaction. Several reports describe increased expression of the telomerase catalytic subunit after exposure of cultured human cells, and the authors attributed the effect to short peptide fragments entering the nucleus and influencing gene transcription. No receptor for the tetrapeptide has been identified, and the free peptide is expected to be degraded rapidly by plasma peptidases. Whether any measurable fraction reaches intact tissues after administration remains an unresolved question rather than an established finding.
The published literature is dominated by a small number of research groups, much of it in Russian-language journals, and independent replication outside those groups is limited. Studies are typically small, use cultured cells or rodent models, and report endpoints that differ between papers, which makes comparison difficult. Large randomised human trials have not appeared in the indexed literature. Questions about absorption, distribution and clearance are therefore still treated as open in reviews that mention the compound.
Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide with the sequence alanine–glutamate–aspartate–glycine, commonly abbreviated AEDG. Its design traces to epithalamin, a peptide fraction prepared from bovine pineal gland extracts that researchers in Saint Petersburg began investigating in the 1970s. The compound has a molecular formula of C14H22N4O9 and a nominal molecular mass near 390 daltons. It holds no approved drug status in the United States or the European Union, and material sold under this name is generally offered as a research chemical rather than a finished pharmaceutical product.
Because epitalon has no pharmacopoeial monograph, quality assessment depends on supplier documentation and independent testing. Certificates of analysis typically report a purity figure from a single chromatographic run, a measured mass and sometimes an appearance description, but methods and acceptance criteria are not harmonised across vendors. Third-party laboratories can repeat identity and purity measurements, and mismatches between labelled and measured peptide content have been described for research peptides generally. What constitutes adequate identity confirmation for a molecule of this size stays an open question, since mass agreement alone does not separate closely related sequences.
Identity testing for epitalon relies on reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography for purity and mass spectrometry for mass confirmation. Because the sequence contains no tryptophan or tyrosine, ultraviolet detection at 280 nanometres is insensitive, so chromatographic methods usually monitor absorbance near 214 nanometres, where the peptide backbone absorbs. Electrospray ionisation or matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation then checks the intact mass against the expected value near 390 daltons. Peptide mapping or amino acid analysis after acid hydrolysis can supplement these measurements, although such confirmatory work is seldom reported on commercial certificates of analysis.
Interest in epitalon is usually discussed within the broader field of short peptide bioregulators, a category that includes other synthetic di-, tri-, and tetrapeptides studied by the same research group. These compounds share a common rationale: that small fragments of tissue-derived proteins can retain biological activity and can be produced reproducibly. The category as a whole remains outside mainstream pharmacological consensus, and epitalon specifically has a limited presence in independent, non-Russian research literature, which shapes how its evidence base is described.
Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide with the amino acid sequence alanine-glutamate-aspartate-glycine, abbreviated Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly or AEDG. It was developed by the Russian researcher Vladimir Khavinson and colleagues during work on peptide bioregulators derived from the pineal gland. The compound is short enough to be produced by standard solid-phase peptide synthesis and is typically handled as a lyophilized white powder. Its small size distinguishes it from larger pineal peptides such as epithalamin, a complex extract from which the tetrapeptide was conceptually derived.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets with US president Joe Biden at the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast. Biden makes a keynote speech at the Ulster University during which he urges Northern Ireland's politicians to restore the power-sharing government. A 74-year-old man is extradited from Pakistan and charged with murdering police officer Sharon Beshenivsky in November 2005. Tesco reduces the price of a four pint bottle of milk from £1.65 to £1.55 following a cut in wholesale prices. Coronation of Charles III and Camilla: Buckingham Palace confirms that the Duke of Sussex will attend the coronation, but that the Duchess will remain in the United States with their children. 13 April Data published by the Office for National Statistics shows a 0% growth in the UK economy during February as growth in the construction industry was offset by industrial action. Publication of the Deciphering Developmental Disorders study, a study involving children with development disorders, which has identified 60 new health conditions. Sainsbury's follows Tesco in cutting the price of milk. A report published by Diabetes UK indicates the UK is heading for what the charity describes as a "rapidly escalating diabetes crisis", with 4.3 million people experiencing a form of diabetes, a further 850,000 estimated to be living with the disease but unaware of it, and another 2.4 million people at risk of developing the condition. Cases of diabetes are more prevalent in less affluent areas of the country. 14 April Ford receives government approval for its "BlueCruise" Level 2 autonomous driving technology.
Also, alphaproteobacteria present a potentially large source of the lipid in the rock record. It has been suggested that these organisms may be synthesizing gammacerane in response to other shifting parameters during water column stratification, as most of the bacteria that contain the ths gene thrive in dynamic environments.
PMC 168677. PMID 9293022. Lau E, Kahn K, Bash P, Bruice T (2000). "The Importance of Reactant Positioning in Enzyme Catalysis: A hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics study of a haloalkane dehalogense". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97 (18): 9937–43. Bibcode:2000PNAS...97.9937L. doi:10.1073/pnas.97.18.9937. PMC 27632. PMID 10963662. Koudelakova T, Chovancova E, Brezovsky J, Monincova M, Fortova A, Jarkovsky J, Damborsky J (2011). "Substrate Specificity of Haloalkane Dehalogenases" (PDF). Biochem. J. 435 (2): 345–54. doi:10.1042/bj20101405. PMID 21294712. Bogdanovic X, Hesseler M, Palm G, Bornscheuer U, Hinrichs W (2010). "Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of the putative haloalkane dehalogenase DppA from Plesiocystis pacifica SIR-I". Acta Crystallographica Section F. 66 (7): 828–30. doi:10.1107/s1744309110018932. PMC 2898472. PMID 20606284. Schindler J, Naranjo P, Honaberger D, Chang C, Brainard J, Vanderberg L, Unkefer C (1999). "Haloalkane dehalogenases: steady-state kinetics and halide inhibition". Biochemistry. 38 (18): 5772–8. doi:10.1021/bi982853y. PMID 10231528. Newman J, Peat T, Richard R, Kan L, Swanson P, Affholter J, Holmes I, Schindler J, Unkefer C, Terwilliger T (1999). "Haloalkane dehalogenases: structure of a Rhodococcus enzyme". Biochemistry. 38 (49): 16105–14. doi:10.1021/bi9913855. PMID 10587433. Tratsiak K, Degtjarik O, Drienovska I, Chrast L, Rezacova P, Kuty M, Chaloupkova R, Damborsky J, Kuta Smatanova I (2013).
=== Dilution to threshold === A dilution series of a sample or extract is prepared and assessed for presence of odour. The result can be described as the odour potency of a compound. One kind of analysis is to measure the maximum dilution in the series in which odour is still perceived. The resulting value is called the flavour dilution (FD) factor in the aroma extraction dilution analysis (AEDA) developed in 1987 by Schieberle and Grosch. On the other hand, another kind of analysis is to also measure the duration of the perceived odour to compute peak areas. The peak areas are known as Charm values in the CharmAnalysis developed in 1984 by Acree and co-workers. The former can then be interpreted as the peak height of the latter. Because the odour threshold of a compound is intended to be measured from a prepared series of dilution (commonly by a factor of 2–3 with 8–10 dilutions), the precision and variation in data can be determined from the dilution factors used. Due to time demand requirements from this method and the general requirement for multiple assessors to minimise errors, having the column split into multiple odour ports would be beneficial for the method.
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Sources: en.wikipedia.org
In an investigative report published by The Insider news-outlet in 2024, journalist Yuriy Matsarsky stated:"...Captagon produced in underground labs—and in actual Syrian pharmaceutical facilities—is distributed to the fighters of Bashar Assad's army. Interestingly, however, the quantities the country produces far exceed its own military's demand. ... By some estimates, this business gives Syria more money than its entire legal export, and the regime constantly works to increase its profits, primarily by expanding its market reach. To this end, criminal gangs associated with Damascus or Hezbollah have built distribution networks for Captagon in countries where the drug was not previously popular."
=== Metallurgical uses === Metal carbonyls are used in several industrial processes. Perhaps the earliest application was the extraction and purification of nickel via nickel tetracarbonyl by the Mond process (see also carbonyl metallurgy). By a similar process carbonyl iron, a highly pure metal powder, is prepared by thermal decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl. Carbonyl iron is used inter alia for the preparation of inductors, pigments, as dietary supplements, in the production of radar-absorbing materials in the stealth technology, and in thermal spraying.
For comparison with lower dosages, the suppression of circulating testosterone levels in men with a dosage of 100 mg/day oral CPA was 77% and with a dosage of 300 mg/week intramuscular CPA was 76%. Dosages of CPA of 12.5 to 25 mg/day have been used as a maintenance dosage for testosterone suppression in men with sexual deviance after initial administration of higher CPA dosages, without recurrence of symptoms. CPA is generally able to maximally suppress circulating testosterone levels by 70 to 80% in men. However, in spite of strong suppression of testosterone levels, CPA, at least by itself (e.g., without estrogen), is not usually able to reduce testosterone levels into the castrate/female range (<50 ng/dL) at any dosage, and testosterone levels generally remain just above it at levels of roughly 50 to 200 ng/dL. However, studies have reported that a very high dosage of CPA of 300 mg/day may suppress testosterone levels to around 50 ng/dL in men. CPA also suppresses estradiol levels in men, with one study finding about a 65% decrease in estradiol levels (from about 27 pg/mL to around 10 pg/mL) with 100 mg/day CPA. CPA has been found to maximally suppress testosterone and estradiol levels in young men within 7 days of continuous administration. Following discontinuation of CPA, the recovery of testosterone levels is variable and may require 14 days to 6 months for completion. An escape or recovery phenomenon, in which testosterone levels increase over time, has been observed with long-term CPA monotherapy.
An outbreak of avian botulism leads to the deaths of about 1,000 birds at the Waikouaiti wastewater treatment plant near Dunedin and the Washdyke Lagoon near Timaru. 27 January – New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters' suspends New Zealand's aid programme to Kiribati after Kiribati President Taneti Maamau cancelled three pre-arranged meetings including one scheduled for mid January 2025. The New Zealand Government had wanted to discuss how NZ$102 million worth of aid money allocated to Kiribati between 2021 and 2024 was being spent. 29 January: Prime Minister Luxon and Transport Minister Chris Bishop announces plans by the Government to reverse blanket speed limits on 38 sections of the New Zealand state highway network and seek public consultation on raising the speed limits for another 49 state highway sections. Advocacy group Toitū te Tiriti files an urgent Waitangi Tribunal claim against proposed Regulatory Standards Bill, claiming it would undermine the Treaty of Waitangi. 30 January: Mount Taranaki is officially recognised as a person under the name Taranaki Maunga. The $130 million Queenstown Town Centre arterial road opens. 31 January: Health Minister Simeon Brown confirms that a new Dunedin Hospital will be built on the site of the former Cadbury factory at a cost of NZ$1.9 billion. A power outage affects 22,000 Transpower customers in Rotorua. The Royal New Zealand Air Force formally retires its fleet of five C-130H Hercules planes.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
The peptide contains four residues in the order alanine, glutamate, aspartate and glycine, abbreviated AEDG. The chain is linear and held together by three peptide bonds. Its calculated mass for the uncharged free form is about 390.3 daltons.
Epithalamin refers to a crude preparation derived from bovine pineal tissue, which contains many components. Epitalon is a single synthetic tetrapeptide identified from that material and produced by chemical synthesis. The two names are sometimes confused because early reports treated the synthetic peptide as an active fragment of the extract.
It has been registered for clinical use in Russia, where it is associated with a small family of short peptides. In most other jurisdictions it is not an approved medicine and is traded as a research chemical. Regulatory status varies by country and changes over time.
The dry powder is typically held at -20 degrees Celsius or lower, protected from light and moisture. Allowing a sealed vial to reach room temperature before opening reduces condensation on its contents. Conditions stated on a supplier certificate of analysis take precedence over general guidance.