This is a working overview of certificate of analysis, written for readers who want more than a one-paragraph summary but less than a textbook.
This page was last updated on 2026-05-12 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro. Its four N-terminal residues reproduce tuftsin, a tetrapeptide fragment of the immunoglobulin heavy chain, while the C-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro extension is a synthetic addition. The peptide has a molecular mass near 752 daltons and carries a net positive charge at physiological pH because of the arginine and lysine side chains. Published indexes list it under the name Selank and the sequence abbreviation TKPRPGP. Solid-phase peptide synthesis is the standard production route for research quantities.
Development took place at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where a series of short peptides were designed in the 1980s and 1990s. Selank was selected from variants of tuftsin that showed resistance to plasma peptidases. Russian regulatory approval covers it as an anxiolytic agent given intranasally. Outside that market the compound is normally handled as a research chemical rather than a medicine, and no widely recognised international pharmacopoeial monograph exists. The name Selank is a coined trade designation rather than a systematic chemical name.
Animal studies have examined behaviour in tests of anxiety, memory retention and stress response, and several report changes in neurotrophic or neurotransmitter-related markers. The human evidence base is much smaller, consisting mainly of short trials conducted in Russia with limited reporting in English-language journals. Sample sizes are modest and outcome measures vary between studies, so the findings are best described as preliminary. Independent replication under modern trial standards has not been widely reported.
Outside its country of origin the compound is generally handled as a research chemical rather than an approved medicine. No regulatory approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency has been granted for human use. Identity and purity are normally checked by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, with mass spectrometry used to confirm the molecular mass. Lyophilised material is stored cold and desiccated, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles are avoided.
Published work on this peptide almost always uses intranasal delivery, with drops or a spray applied to the nasal mucosa. Some animal experiments have used subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injection, and a smaller number have compared routes directly. Oral administration is not a focus of the literature, because short peptides of this size are broken down by digestive enzymes and cross intestinal barriers poorly. How much of an intranasal dose reaches the bloodstream intact in humans remains an open question.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical class | Synthetic heptapeptide | Tuftsin analogue with a C-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro tail |
| Amino acid sequence | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro | Abbreviated TKPRPGP in most catalogues |
| Molecular mass | About 752 Da | Value for the free peptide |
| Solubility | Freely soluble in water | Aqueous solutions are kept cold and used promptly |
| Typical storage | -20 °C, dry, protected from light | Applies to the lyophilised powder before reconstitution |
Measuring peptide exposure inside the brain is technically difficult. Selank is degraded rapidly in plasma, and assays must separate intact peptide from fragments, which favors targeted mass spectrometry over immunoassays alone. Reported half-lives are short, on the order of minutes, so effects observed hours later are attributed to downstream signaling rather than to the parent compound. Blood-brain barrier permeability is debated and rarely quantified directly. Gaps include absent dose-response characterization, inconsistent reporting of purity, and almost no pharmacokinetic data from human participants.
Selank is studied chiefly as an animal-model anxiolytic with proposed secondary effects on memory and immune signaling. Reported mechanisms include modulation of the GABA-A receptor complex, inhibition of enkephalin-degrading enzymes, and shifts in monoamine turnover within limbic structures. Some experiments describe increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the hippocampus after repeated dosing. No single molecular target has been confirmed, and the peptide does not bind any receptor with the selectivity typical of a conventional small-molecule drug. Mechanism therefore remains a set of hypotheses rather than an established pathway.
Laboratory work relies on standard behavioral paradigms. Rodents are tested in the elevated plus maze, open field, and passive avoidance tasks, with outcomes compared against diazepam or vehicle controls. Intranasal dosing is used most often because it bypasses first-pass metabolism, though intraperitoneal and intravenous routes also appear in published protocols. Biochemical endpoints include tissue BDNF concentrations, cytokine levels, and monoamine metabolites. Human data are limited to small Russian trials reporting reduced anxiety scores; most were not prospectively registered, and few employed independent outcome assessment.
Published clinical work is concentrated in Russian-language journals and generally involves small samples without independent replication. Systematic reviews in English note the shortage of randomised, placebo-controlled trials and the difficulty of verifying methods from translated reports. Outcome measures vary between studies, which complicates pooling of results. Interest in the compound as a cognitive or anxiolytic agent therefore rests on a thinner evidence base than the volume of citations suggests. Replication in well-powered trials with preregistered endpoints would be needed before firm conclusions about efficacy can be drawn.
Proposed mechanisms centre on the GABAergic system. Animal and tissue studies report changes in GABA-A receptor expression and reduced activity of GABA transaminase, the enzyme that degrades GABA. Effects on monoamine turnover, including serotonin and dopamine pathways, are also described, and a separate line of work links the peptide to increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in hippocampal tissue. Most of these findings come from rodent models and cell preparations. How the individual observations combine into a single coherent mode of action is not settled.
Reported activity for Selank centers on anxiolytic and nootropic effects. Russian clinical reports describe use in anxiety and in cognitive or attention-related complaints. Most of this evidence comes from studies conducted by the same research groups that developed the peptide. Independent replication in other countries remains limited, and no major Western regulatory agency has approved the compound for any indication. The gap between local reports and external verification is a recurring point in discussions of the peptide.
Tuftsin, the parent structure, is a naturally occurring immunomodulatory tetrapeptide released from the Fc region of immunoglobulin G by spleen enzymes. Selank extends this four-residue sequence with three additional amino acids. The stated rationale is that the added tail slows enzymatic breakdown and may influence receptor interactions. How the full heptapeptide behaves at the molecular level is not firmly established, and proposed mechanisms often involve indirect modulation of neurotransmitter or immune signaling rather than a single defined target.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide developed in Russia. Its sequence is Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, a seven-residue chain built around the natural tetrapeptide tuftsin. Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences first described the compound in the mid-1990s. The design combined the tuftsin core with an added Pro-Gly-Pro tail, a modification intended to extend the molecule's stability in biological fluids. Published work on the peptide has appeared mainly in Russian-language journals.
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.
=== Miniature linear quadrupole mass filter === The linear quadrupole mass filter or quadrupole mass analyzer is one of the most popular mass analyzer. The mini-quadrupole has been used as a single analyzer or in arrays of identical mass analyzers. The quadrupole array has rods of 0.5mm radius and 10mm long while another one with rods of 1mm radius and 25mm long. These mini quadrupole were developed and characterized at a radio frequency (RF) higher than 11 MHz. Volatile organic compounds were ionized by electron ionization and were characterized with unit resolution. Micromachining was applied to produce a much smaller V-groove quadrupole.
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Human oocyte cryopreservation is a new technology in which a woman's eggs (oocytes) are extracted, frozen and stored. Later, when she is ready to become pregnant, the eggs can be thawed, fertilized, and transferred to the uterus as embryos. Since 1999, when the birth of the first baby from an embryo-derived from vitrified-warmed woman's eggs was reported by Kuleshova and co-workers in the journal of Human Reproduction, this concept has been recognized and widespread. This breakthrough in achieving vitrification of a woman's oocytes made an important advance in our knowledge and practice of the IVF process, as the clinical pregnancy rate is four times higher after oocyte vitrification than after slow freezing. Oocyte vitrification is vital for preserving fertility in young oncology patients and for individuals undergoing IVF who object, for either religious or ethical reasons, to the practice of freezing embryos.
Bhutan: Starting primarily in the 1990s, the Bhutanese government implemented strict restrictions on the country's ethnically Nepali Lhotshampa population and implemented internal border control policies to restrict immigration or return of ethnic Nepalis, creating a refugee crisis. This policy shift effectively ended previously liberal immigration policies concerning Nepalis and counts among the most racialised border control policies in Asia. China: China does not currently recognise North Korean defectors as refugees and subjects them to immediate deportation if caught. The China-DPRK border is fortified, and both sides aim to deter refugees from crossing. Human rights organisations have criticised this aspect of Chinese border control policy. Cyprus: As a result of Northern Cyprus's sovereignty dispute with Southern Cyprus, the South (a member of the European Union) has imposed restrictions on the North's airports, and pressure from the European Union has resulted in all countries other than Turkey recognising the South's ability to impose a border shutdown on the North, thus negating the right to self determination of the predominantly Turkish Northern Cypriot population and subjecting their airports to border controls imposed by the predominantly Greek South. As a result, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic support and is unable to develop a functioning economy. Israel: Border control, both on entry and on exit, at Israeli airports rates passengers' potential threat to security using factors including nationality, ethnicity, and race.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
== History == Flupirtine was discovered and developed between the 1970s and the 1990s by Chemiewerk Homburg in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which became Degussa Pharma Group and then through mergers, ASTA Pharma and Asta Medica. Retigabine, a bioisostere of flupirtine, was discovered as part of the same program and has a similar mechanism of action. Flupirtine was approved for the treatment of pain in 1984 in Europe under the brand name Katadolon. As of 2013 it was used in 11 member countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovak Republic. Many generics entered the European market around 2011. It was never introduced to the United States market for any indication but in 2008, Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now called Synthetic Biologics, Inc.) obtained an option to license issued and patent pending applications relating to flupirtine's use in the treatment of ophthalmic indications, particularly retinitis pigmentosa. As of 2016 it is marketed under many brand names, including Efiret, Flupigil, Flupirtin, Flupirtina, Flupirtine, Flupizen, Fluproxy, Katadolon, Metanor, Trancolong, and Zentiva.
== Career == White began his academic career as an assistant professor in what is now the department of physiology and biophysics at the University of California, Irvine in 1972. He was promoted to associate professor in 1975, and to professor in 1979. He became professor emeritus in 2012. During his tenure at UCI, he also held concurrent appointments at Brookhaven National Laboratories as guest associate physiologist till 1983, and as guest biophysicist till 1996. He also served as a guest scientist at NIST Center for Neutron Research since 2001. White was appointed vice-chair in the department of physiology and biophysics at UCI from 1974 till 1975, and as chair from 1977 till 1989. In this role, he hired several other faculty, and helped launch their careers.
IGC experiments are typically carried out at "infinite dilution", where only small amounts of probe molecule are injected. This region is also called Henry's law region or linear region of the sorption isotherm. At infinite dilution probe-probe interactions are assumed negligible and any retention is only due to probe-solid interactions. The resulting retention volume, VRo, is given by the following equation:
This mnemonic does not include the zero and 1 symbols, which are much easier to remember by rote (see diagram at right.) The white hair often produced by freeze branding is highly amenable to simple shapes such as angles and lines. Farrell's Alpha Angle Freeze Mark was later adopted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service as their preferred means of tracking captured wild equids. Alpha-Angle brands can be used one at a time or set into a frame that enables all the irons needed for a particular brand to be chilled, shaken off and applied to the animal's skin at once. The Alpha-Angle system was patented by Farrell in 1972, originally for a punch gun made to tattoo the ears of livestock with Alpha-Angle symbols. The simplicity of her number system means that users can construct their irons with little difficulty, an important consideration in the American West. Alpha-Angle numerals remain the best-known and most widely used part of her branding system.
== Business career == Newsom and a group of investors created the company PlumpJack Associates L.P. on May 14, 1991. The group started the PlumpJack Winery in 1992 with the financial help of his family friend Gordon Getty. PlumpJack was the name of an opera written by Getty, who invested in 10 of Newsom's 11 businesses. Getty told the San Francisco Chronicle that he treated Newsom like a son and invested in his first business venture because of that relationship. According to Getty, later business investments were because of "the success of the first". One of Newsom's early interactions with government occurred when Newsom resisted the San Francisco Department of Public Health's requirement to install a sink at his PlumpJack wine store. The Health Department argued that wine was a food and required the store to install a $2,700 sink in the carpeted wine shop on the grounds that the shop needed the sink for a mop. When Newsom was later appointed supervisor, he told the San Francisco Examiner: "That's the kind of bureaucratic malaise I'm going to be working through." The business grew to an enterprise with more than 700 employees. The PlumpJack Cafe Partners L.P. opened the PlumpJack Café, also on Fillmore Street, in 1993. Between 1993 and 2000, Newsom and his investors opened several other businesses that included the PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn with a PlumpJack Café (1994), a winery in Napa Valley (1995), the Balboa Café Bar and Grill (1995), the PlumpJack Development Fund L.P.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== The Major Intrinsic Protein Family (TC# 1.A.8) === The MIP family is large and diverse, possessing thousands of members that form transmembrane channels. These channel proteins function in transporting water, small carbohydrates (e.g., glycerol), urea, NH3, CO2, H2O2 and ions by energy-independent mechanisms. For example, the glycerol channel, FPS1p of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mediates uptake of arsenite and antimonite. Ion permeability appears to occur through a pathway different than that used for water/glycerol transport and may involve a channel at the 4 subunit interface rather than the channels through the subunits. MIP family members are found ubiquitously in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. Phylogenetic clustering of the proteins is primarily based according to phylum of the organisms of origin, but one or more clusters are observed for each phylogenetic kingdom (plants, animals, yeast, bacteria and archaea). MIPs are classified into five subfamilies in higher plants, including plasma membrane (PIPs), tonoplast (TIPs), NOD26-like (NIPs), small basic (SIPs) and unclassified X (XIPs) intrinsic proteins. One of the plant clusters includes only tonoplast (TIP) proteins, while another includes plasma membrane (PIP) proteins.
Xylazine is a potent α2-adrenergic receptor agonist. When xylazine and other α2-adrenergic receptor agonists are administered, they distribute throughout the body within 30 to 40 minutes. Due to xylazine's highly lipophilic nature, it directly stimulates central α2-adrenergic receptors as well as peripheral α-adrenergic receptors in a variety of tissues. As an agonist, xylazine reduces release of norepinephrine in the central nervous system. It does so by mimicking norepinephrine in binding to the pre-synaptic surface autoreceptors, which leads to feedback inhibition of norepinephrine release. Recent data suggests that xylazine treatment can induce dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens through an unresolved mechanism, and this effect is blocked by atipamezole. Xylazine also serves as a transport inhibitor by suppressing norepinephrine transport function through competitive inhibition of substrate transport. Accordingly, xylazine significantly increases Km and does not affect Vmax. This likely occurs by direct interaction on an area that overlaps with the antidepressant binding site. For example, xylazine and clonidine suppress uptake of iobenguane (MIBG), a norepinephrine analogue, in neuroblastoma cells. Xylazine's chemical structure closely resembles clonidine. It has also been reported that xylazine activates the κ-opioid receptors, with low potency, which may contribute to its effects. Unlike other α2-adrenergic receptor agonists xylazine does not have any imidazoline receptor activity.
Valerie Joy Beynon. For services to the community in Cobham, Surrey. Elizabeth Kay Billington. Chair, Kushti Bok and Vice-Chair, Dorset Council Gypsy Traveller Forum. For services to the Gypsy and Traveller Community in Dorset. William Archibald Bingham. Chair, Newcastle and Mourne Cancer Research Committee. For services to Cancer Research Fundraising in County Down. Chandra Shekhar Biyani. Consultant Urological Surgeon, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. For services to Medical Education. Reverend Christine Fiona Blackman. For services to the community in Reading, Berkshire. Derek John Bland. For services to the community in Northamptonshire. Roberta Vivian Lindsay Blyth. For services to the community in Roade, Northamptonshire. Winifred Patricia Bownes. Volunteer Coordinator, Cookstown Monday Club. For services to the community in Cookstown, County Tyrone. Mary Boyes. Cleaner, North Shore Academy, Stockton-on-Tees. For services to Education. John Robert Boyne-Aitken. For services to Heritage Crafts. Evelyn Lettita Bracey. For services to the community in Wantage, Oxfordshire. Paul Mark Brackley. Community First Responder, Oundle Community First Responders. For services to the community in Oundle and North Northamptonshire. Christopher Samuel Bradbury. For services to the community in Reedham, Norfolk. Moira Jeanette Brock. Founder and Principal, La Danse Fantastique. For services to Young People in Basildon, Essex. Anna Theresa Margaret Brown. For services to the NHS and to the community in the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames. Dennis Sydney Brown.
== Bioinformatics == Owing to the increasing complexity of regulation of cellular processes and the roles proteases play in them, bioinformatics continues to be an invaluable tool for degradomics. Software, databases, and projects developed for this purpose have accompanied the advancement in technology. Software developed in the Overall Lab (CLIPPER) statistically evaluates cleavage site candidates determined by degradomic approaches. One web-based data site, WebPICS, incorporates and integrates cleavage site analysis from PICS experiments into MEROPS, the protease database. Another database, Termini oriented protein Function Inferred Database (TopFIND), serves as a knowledge base to integrate protein termini formed by protease processing with functional interpretations. By combining research literature and other biological databases including UniProt, MEROPS, Ensembl, and TisDB, the database comprehensively renders protein termini modifications accessible to a broad scientific community. Using TopFIND, terminal modifications can be identified and visualized across proteins thanks to all available in silico, in vitro, and in vivo findings. Using TopFINDer and Path FINDer software, research findings can be mathematically modelled into a network of pathways regulated by proteases, further contributing to the “protease web”.
The RTS,S vaccine was endorsed by the World Health Organization in October 2021 for broad use in children, making it the first malaria vaccine to receive this recommendation. As of April 2022, 1 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have received at least one shot of the vaccine, with more doses being provided as the vaccine production ramps up. RTS,S reduces hospital admissions from severe malaria by around 30%.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Selank is a seven-amino-acid peptide built from the tuftsin sequence plus a Pro-Gly-Pro tail. It is produced by chemical synthesis rather than extracted from a natural source. The free peptide is usually supplied as a lyophilised powder or in an aqueous formulation.
Tuftsin is a natural tetrapeptide derived from the Fc portion of immunoglobulin G. Selank retains that tetrapeptide at its N-terminus and adds three residues to improve resistance to enzymatic breakdown. The relationship is structural, and the two molecules are not interchangeable in experimental work.
It holds a product registration in Russia for intranasal use as an anxiolytic. Registrations of that kind are not automatically accepted by regulators elsewhere. In most other countries it is treated as an unapproved substance or a research material.
Most published work uses intranasal application, either as drops or as a nasal spray. Injection routes appear in a smaller set of animal experiments. Oral use is uncommon in the literature because peptide breakdown and poor absorption limit this route.