Peptides and Ageing.

Khavinson VKh. Neuroendocrinol Lett. 2002.

Organ: general-aging · Type: review · Peptides: Epithalamin, Thymalin, Epitalon

A 2002 Neuroendocrinology Letters monograph stating the peptide theory of ageing and surveying Epithalamin, Thymalin, and Epitalon across animals and cited clinical use — not a new trial.

Editorial summary of a 2002 Neuroendocrinology Letters review/monograph (volume 23, supplement 3). Public pages cite PubMed only. Read the paper: PMID 12374906.

Methods

Narrative monograph. The author describes a method for making peptide preparations from tissue extracts, then surveys published organ-explant, animal, and cited clinical work on pineal (Epithalamin), thymic (Thymalin), prostate, cortex, and retinal preparations, and on synthetic short peptides designed from their amino-acid composition — including the tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly (Epitalon / Epithalon), proposed as common to retina and pineal. No new randomized trial is run in this article.

Findings

The author reports that Epithalamin increased pineal melatonin in rats, improved immunological readouts, showed anticarcinogenic effects in experimental models, stimulated antioxidant defenses, restored reproductive function in old rats, and increased lifespan in rats, mice, and fruit flies, with geroprotector activity cited from clinical trials. Thymalin is presented chiefly as an immunity stimulant with associated anticarcinogenic and geroprotector claims. Epitalon is said to reproduce many Epithalamin effects, including lifespan increase in mice and fruit flies, restoration of melatonin and cortisol rhythms in old rhesus monkeys, and retinal function in Campbell rats and in patients with pigmentary retinal degeneration. The closing “peptide theory of ageing” treats ageing as evolutionarily determined change in gene expression that impairs peptide synthesis.

Those claims are the author’s synthesis of prior work. This page does not independently verify the cited trials. Follow the PMID.