Bioregulators, commonly called Khavinson peptides, are very short peptides — usually di-, tri- or tetrapeptides — developed from a Soviet-era programme led by Vladimir Khavinson at the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. The first generation were cytomedines: crude peptide fractions extracted from animal tissues (thymus for Thymalin, pineal for Epithalamin). The second generation, cytogens, are chemically defined synthetic sequences intended to reproduce the active core — Epitalon (AEDG), Vilon (KE), Pinealon (EDR), Cortagen (AEDP).
The hypothesis, and the evidence problem
The proposed mechanism is unusual: that these peptides are small enough to enter the nucleus and bind specific promoter sequences in double-stranded DNA, giving tissue-selective transcriptional effects. Supporting work is largely from the originating group, published predominantly in Russian-language journals, and independent replication of the DNA-binding and lifespan findings is limited. The naming convention itself is a giveaway of tissue-of-origin logic rather than target-based design: Cerluten (brain), Ventfort (vascular), Sigumir (cartilage).
Chemically they are trivial to synthesise, easy to characterise by MS, and unstable to proteolysis, which is why sublingual and injectable formats both appear.
Related terms and material
tripeptide · telomerase · preclinical. Reference material: Khavinson bioregulators, Epitalon, Thymalin. Further reading: the bioregulator catalog explained.