tuftsin 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 2026-05-22. Where a claim depends on a specific study, the study is described rather than over-claimed.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide developed in Russia during the 1990s. Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences designed it as a stabilized analog of tuftsin, a naturally occurring immunomodulatory tetrapeptide. The compound has been studied primarily for its reported anxiolytic and nootropic effects. It remains largely unknown in Western pharmacology and is not approved as a medicine by major regulators such as the FDA or the EMA.
The primary structure of Selank is Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, corresponding to the molecular formula C33H57N11O9 and a monoisotopic mass of roughly 751.9 daltons. The N-terminal threonine and the arginine residue in the fourth position are shared with tuftsin, which carries the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg. The three additional residues at the C-terminus, Pro-Gly-Pro, extend the chain and are associated with greater resistance to enzymatic degradation. This extension also separates Selank from the shorter parent peptide.
Naming conventions place Selank in the same research family as Semax, another Russian-developed peptide investigated for cognitive effects. The two compounds share a lineage but differ in sequence and in the biological systems proposed as their targets. Semax descends from ACTH fragments, whereas Selank descends from tuftsin. Publications sometimes identify Selank by its full peptide sequence or by laboratory codes rather than one uniform trade name. Because replication outside Russia is limited, reports on its properties are best read alongside the study design and the purity of the material tested.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide developed in Russia as a structural analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring immunomodulatory tetrapeptide. Its sequence, Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, keeps the tuftsin core at the N-terminus and appends a Pro-Gly-Pro tail. Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow synthesized the compound during the 1990s while searching for peptides with combined anxiolytic and immunomodulatory activity. The added tail was intended to resist enzymatic cleavage and prolong the molecule's presence in circulation.
The compound has a calculated molecular weight near 751.9 daltons and carries a net positive charge at physiological pH because of its arginine residue. It dissolves freely in water and in common aqueous buffers, and typically appears as a white or off-white lyophilized powder. The amide backbone makes the molecule susceptible to peptidases, which limits oral use and favors intranasal or parenteral routes. Nomenclature in the literature varies: the substance is also described by the sequence abbreviation TP-7 and by a Russian trade designation.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular class | Synthetic heptapeptide | Stabilized analog of tuftsin |
| Sequence | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro | Single-letter form: TKPRPGP |
| Molecular formula | C33H57N11O9 | Monoisotopic mass about 751.9 Da |
| Appearance | White to off-white powder | Typically supplied as lyophilized solid |
| Solubility | Freely soluble in water | Also soluble in common polar solvents |
Purity assessment relies mainly on reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. Because the peptide lacks a strong chromophore, detection often uses backbone absorbance near 214 nm. Identity is confirmed by mass spectrometry, typically electrospray ionization or matrix-assisted laser desorption, comparing the measured mass against the expected value. Amino acid analysis can verify composition after acid hydrolysis. Diastereomer content and residual counterions are reported less often, although both can influence biological assays.
Lyophilized material is generally stable for extended periods when kept dry at or below minus twenty degrees Celsius. Working solutions are less stable, and common practice is to aliquot and freeze them so that repeated freeze-thaw cycles are avoided. Aqueous solutions are sensitive to pH extremes and to microbial growth, so short-term storage at refrigerator temperature is typical. Oxidation and hydrolysis are the principal degradation routes. Reconstitution with sterile water or a mild buffer is standard, and solutions should be protected from light.
Pharmacokinetic data are limited. Like most short peptides, Selank is vulnerable to plasma and tissue peptidases, and its measured half-life in circulation is short, on a minutes scale. The Pro-Gly-Pro tail slows this degradation but does not eliminate it. Intranasal administration is the route described in most reports, with absorption through the nasal mucosa and a hypothesized path into the central nervous system that avoids the blood-brain barrier. Direct measurements of human brain exposure are unavailable, so distribution claims rest on inference from animal work.
Clinical evidence comes mainly from small studies conducted in Russia, several of which were open-label or lacked robust blinding. Reported outcomes include lower anxiety scores, changes in attention measures, and effects on asthenic states following illness. Sample sizes are typically in the tens of participants, and independent replication outside the region is scarce. Reviews published in English generally note the limited methodological quality of the underlying trials. Whether the compound produces clinically meaningful effects under rigorous conditions remains unresolved.
Naming for this compound is not fully standardised in English sources. The spelling Selanc appears in some transliterations, and catalogue entries may instead list the peptide sequence itself as the identifier. Reference material sometimes groups it with other short synthetic peptides studied for behavioural effects, which can create confusion when citations are compared. Distinguishing the exact sequence from related tuftsin analogues is therefore a practical first step when reviewing any dataset or specification sheet.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, frequently abbreviated as TKPRPGP. It was designed as a structural analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring tetrapeptide released by enzymatic cleavage of the immunoglobulin heavy chain. The two additional proline residues at the C-terminal end extend the parent chain and change how the molecule behaves in solution. The free peptide has a calculated molecular mass of approximately 751.9 g/mol and is generally supplied as a lyophilised white to off-white powder.
Development work on the compound began in the 1980s and 1990s at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow, within the same research programme that produced the peptide Semax. Early investigators sought a tuftsin derivative with improved resistance to enzymatic breakdown and with activity in the central nervous system after peripheral administration. Most of the primary literature from this period was published in Russian, a factor that still shapes how easily the findings can be checked by outside groups.
At its most fundamental level, inheritance in organisms occurs by passing discrete heritable units, called genes, from parents to offspring. This property was first observed by Gregor Mendel, who studied the segregation of heritable traits in pea plants, showing for example that flowers on a single plant were either purple or white—but never an intermediate between the two colors. The discrete versions of the same gene controlling the inherited appearance (phenotypes) are called alleles. In the case of the pea, which is a diploid species, each individual plant has two copies of each gene, one copy inherited from each parent. Many species, including humans, have this pattern of inheritance. Diploid organisms with two copies of the same allele of a given gene are called homozygous at that gene locus, while organisms with two different alleles of a given gene are called heterozygous. The set of alleles for a given organism is called its genotype, while the observable traits of the organism are called its phenotype. When organisms are heterozygous at a gene, often one allele is called dominant as its qualities dominate the phenotype of the organism, while the other allele is called recessive as its qualities recede and are not observed. Some alleles do not have complete dominance and instead have incomplete dominance by expressing an intermediate phenotype, or codominance by expressing both alleles at once. When a pair of organisms reproduce sexually, their offspring randomly inherit one of the two alleles from each parent.
=== "Revolution within a Revolution": 1987–1998 === The late 1980s saw a series of liberalizing economic reforms within Libya designed to cope with the decline in oil revenues. In May 1987, Gaddafi announced the start of the "Revolution within a Revolution", which began with reforms to industry and agriculture and saw the re-opening of small business. Restrictions were placed on the activities of the Revolutionary Committees; in March 1988, their role was narrowed by the newly created Ministry for Mass Mobilization and Revolutionary Leadership to restrict their violence and judicial role, while in August 1988 Gaddafi publicly criticized them. In March, hundreds of political prisoners were freed, with Gaddafi falsely claiming that there were no further political prisoners in Libya. In June, Libya's government issued the Great Green Charter on Human Rights in the Era of the Masses, in which 27 articles laid out goals, rights, and guarantees to improve the situation of human rights in Libya, restricting the use of the death penalty and calling for its eventual abolition. Many of the measures suggested in the charter would be implemented the next year, although others remained inactive. Also in 1989, the government founded the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, to be awarded to figures from the Third World who had struggled against colonialism and imperialism; the first year's winner was South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.
== External links == Interview with Roderick MacKinnon by Harry Kroto Freeview video provided by the Vega Science Trust. Website of his lab at The Rockefeller University Ion Channel Chemistry: The Electrical System of Life Transcribed video of a May 2008 talk by MacKinnon, sponsored by the Oregon State University Libraries. Nobel Lecture by Roderick MacKinnon, 2003 Introduction to Neuroscience by Donald C.Cooper Roderick MacKinnon on Nobelprize.org
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== Studies in vitro === Epitalon appears to induce telomere elongation via increased telomerase activity in human somatic cells in vitro, based on a study in human fibroblast cell cultures. Elongation of telomeres by epitalon was sufficient to surpass the Hayflick limit in a cell culture of human fetal fibroblast cells, extending their proliferative potential from termination at the 34th passage in the control cell population to beyond the 44th passage in the treated cell population, while increasing the lengths of their telomeres to levels comparable to those of cells in the original culture. Epitalon induces decondensation of heterochromatin near the centromeres in cultured lymphocytes originating from samples taken from humans of ages 76 to 80 years. Epitalon appears to inhibit the synthesis of the MMP9 protein in vitro in aging skin fibroblasts.
In the 1497 expedition of Vasco da Gama, the curative effects of citrus fruit were known. In the 1500s, Portuguese sailors put in to the island of Saint Helena to avail themselves of planted vegetable gardens and wild-growing fruit trees. Authorities occasionally recommended plant food to prevent scurvy during long sea voyages. John Woodall, the first surgeon to the British East India Company, recommended the preventive and curative use of lemon juice in his 1617 book, The Surgeon's Mate. In 1734, the Dutch writer Johann Bachstrom gave the firm opinion, "scurvy is solely owing to a total abstinence from fresh vegetable food, and greens." Scurvy had long been a principal killer of sailors during the long sea voyages. According to Jonathan Lamb, "In 1499, Vasco da Gama lost 116 of his crew of 170; In 1520, Magellan lost 208 out of 230; ... all mainly to scurvy."
The first-generation Molteno and other nonvalved implants sometimes require the ligation of the tube until the bleb formed is mildly fibrosed and water-tight. This is done to reduce postoperative hypotony—sudden drops in postoperative intraocular pressure. Valved implants, such as the Ahmed glaucoma valve, attempt to control postoperative hypotony by using a mechanical valve. Ab interno implants, such as the Xen Gel Stent, are transscleral implants by an ab interno procedure to channel aqueous humor into the non-dissected Tenon's space, creating a subconjunctival drainage area similar to a bleb. The implants are transscleral and different from other ab interno implants that do not create a transscleral drainage, such as iStent, CyPass, or Hydrus. The ongoing scarring over the conjunctival dissipation segment of the shunt may become too thick for the aqueous humor to filter through. This may require preventive measures using antifibrotic medications, such as 5-fluorouracil or mitomycin-C (during the procedure), or other nonantifibrotic medication methods, such as collagen matrix implant, or biodegradable spacer, or later on create a necessity for revision surgery with the sole or combinative use of donor patch grafts or collagen matrix implant.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
An Iranian ballistic missile strike damaged an Israeli drone factory in Petah Tikva. On the same day, Iran's army chief, Amir Hatami, stated that if US forces invade the country, "not a single person" among the invaders will survive.
(2026) present virtually reconstructed models of the face of the same individual. Choudhary et al. (2026) provided new paleomagnetic and stratigraphic data for the Ramnagar region of India, re-dating its primate-yielding localities to 13.03–11.59 Ma and extending the known chronological range of the primates like Sivapithecus, Kapi and Ramadapis by approximately 200,000 years. Evidence from the study of the cranial endocast of Rudapithecus hungaricus, indicative of presence of sulcal patterns similar to those seen in gorillas, is presented by Assance, Silcox & Begun (2026). Spassov et al. (2026) report the discovery of a nearly complete femur of cf. Graecopithecus from the Miocene strata from the Azmaka-6 locality near Chirpan (Bulgaria), sharing morphological traits with both quadrupeds and bipeds, and interpreted as indicative of a transitional locomotor repertoire including both terrestrial quadrupedalism and an early form of facultative bipedalism. Evidence from the study of teeth and the bony labyrinth of Oreopithecus bambolii, interpreted as indicating that the studied primate was more likely to be a derived stem hominoid than a close relative of Miocene apes from Europe or gibbons, is presented by Urciuoli et al. (2026). Jansma & Locke (2026) interpret Xenopithecus koruensis as a valid basal hominoid taxon distinct from Proconsul africanus. Williams et al.
There are many types of treatment for the perichondral hematoma that can lead to cauliflower ear, but the current body of research is unable to identify a single best treatment or protocol. There is definitive evidence that the drainage of this hematoma is better for the prevention of cauliflower deformity when compared to conservative treatment, but the use of bandages and/or splinting after drainage requires more research. Because an acute hematoma can lead to cauliflower ear, prompt evacuation of the blood can prevent permanent deformity. There are many described techniques for the drainage of blood in the acute stage to prevent hematoma, including aspiration and drainage, incision and drainage, use of continuous suction devices and placing a wick. After the blood has been drained, the prevention of re-accumulation becomes the most pressing issue. This has been achieved with many techniques including: direct pressure dressings, in and out mattress sutures, buttons placed on sutures, thermoplastic splints, sutured cotton balls, and absorbable mattress sutures. The use of simple drainage becomes less useful after six hours from the injury and when there is recurrent trauma. In these cases it has been suggested that open surgical treatment is more effective in returning the cosmetic appearance and prevention of recurrence. The outer ear is prone to infections, so antibiotics are usually prescribed. Pressure can be applied by bandaging which helps the skin and the cartilage to reconnect.
=== Non-ruminants === Rats that were given a diet containing ptaquiloside for a prolonged period developed tumors in both the ileum and urinary bladder. Prakash, Smith and co-workers showed that ptaquiloside-induced carcinogenesis was initiated by the activation of the H-ras oncogene. Other non-ruminants such as pig, rabbit, and guinea pig, also develop syndromes after ingestion of ptaquiloside, which include haematuria, tumors and organ abnormities (see the diagram).
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide designed as a stabilized analog of the natural tetrapeptide tuftsin. It has been investigated mainly for anxiolytic and cognitive effects. It is not an approved pharmaceutical in most countries.
It was developed in Russia, at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, during the 1990s. Most published research originates from Russian institutions. Independent international replication remains limited.
Tuftsin is a natural tetrapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg that participates in immune signaling. Selank extends that sequence with Pro-Gly-Pro at the C-terminus. The added residues are linked to greater resistance to enzymatic breakdown.
Selank is a synthetic seven-amino-acid peptide modeled on tuftsin, a fragment of the immunoglobulin G heavy chain. It was designed in Russia to combine anxiolytic and immunomodulatory properties in one molecule.