The short version of Lyophilisation fits in a sentence. The long version — which is the one that helps — is below.
Reviewed 2026-04-18. Anything still debated is marked as such rather than presented as settled.
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.
Regulatory status differs sharply by region. Selank holds a Russian marketing authorization, where it is supplied mainly as nasal drops, while authorities elsewhere have not approved it for medical use. Material sold internationally is therefore usually labeled as a research chemical rather than a medicine. Peer-reviewed publications come predominantly from Russian laboratories, and sample sizes are generally small. Whether the compound produces comparable effects under independent, well-controlled replication remains an open question that the broader literature has not settled.
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.
Peptide bonds are vulnerable to protease attack, and Selank is no exception. Measured half-life in serum is short, on the order of minutes in several reports, which explains why intranasal administration is the common route described in the literature. Absorption across the nasal mucosa partially bypasses first-pass hepatic metabolism. Quantitative data on human bioavailability remain limited and are difficult to compare across studies.
Lyophilised material kept dry at minus 20 degrees Celsius or colder is the most stable form, and suppliers commonly state a shelf life of two years or more under those conditions. Once dissolved, degradation accelerates through hydrolysis and deamidation, particularly at alkaline pH or elevated temperature. Working solutions are usually divided into single-use aliquots to avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles. The choice of reconstitution solvent affects both stability and the ionic strength of the final preparation.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical class | Synthetic heptapeptide | Analog of the tetrapeptide tuftsin |
| Sequence | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro | Reported consistently across pharmacopoeial descriptions |
| Appearance | White to off-white lyophilized powder | Typical form of research-grade material |
| Solubility | Freely soluble in water | Aqueous buffers; poor in nonpolar solvents |
| Typical storage temperature | -20 degrees Celsius | Lyophilized powder; protect from moisture |
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.
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.
Published clinical evidence is limited. Most controlled trials were conducted in Russia, enrolled modest numbers of participants, and appeared in Russian-language journals, which restricts independent verification. Reported outcomes include lower anxiety scores, improved attention and memory measures, and changes in fatigue ratings. Reviews written in English note methodological limitations such as small samples and inconsistent endpoints. Whether the compound produces clinically meaningful benefit relative to established anxiolytics is therefore an open question rather than an established finding.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro. It was designed at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a structural analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring tetrapeptide fragment of the immunoglobulin heavy chain. The added Pro-Gly-Pro tail was intended to slow enzymatic degradation and extend biological activity. In Russia it is registered as an anxiolytic nasal preparation, while regulators elsewhere have not approved it for clinical use.
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.
Regulatory treatment varies by jurisdiction. In Russia the compound is a registered prescription product, while in the European Union and the United States it is generally handled as a research chemical without a marketing authorization. Suppliers therefore operate outside pharmaceutical oversight, and buyers rely on supplier documentation for purity and identity claims. Chain of custody and third-party testing are the main verification tools. Analysts note that the absence of a pharmacopoeial monograph for research-grade material limits standardization across vendors.
Selank is a hydrophilic peptide and dissolves readily in water and in aqueous buffers. The lyophilised powder is typically a white to off-white solid. Because short peptides are prone to hydrolysis and oxidation, handling benefits from limiting exposure to heat, moisture and strong light. Working solutions are commonly prepared in sterile water or saline, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles are avoided to reduce aggregation and loss of activity. These practices reflect general laboratory convention rather than published stability specifications.
Dry powder is normally held at -20 degrees Celsius or lower, in a sealed container with desiccant and protection from light. Reconstituted solutions are usually kept at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for short periods and frozen for longer ones. Proline residues at several positions are generally associated with some resistance to peptidase attack, but chemical stability still declines at neutral to alkaline pH and at elevated temperature. Exact shelf-life figures are product-specific and are not standardised across suppliers.
This structure with repeated sequences is responsible for frequent duplication events, which create new genes, and recombination events, at the origin of combination diversity. These properties generate diversity at an individual scale and therefore contribute to adaptation of organisms to their environments. For example, in Plasmodium falciparum during interphase of the erythrocytic stage, the chromosomic extremities are gathered at the cell nucleus periphery, where they undergo frequent deletion and telomere position effect (TPE). This event, in addition to expansion and deletion of subtelomeric repeats, gives rise to chromosome size polymorphisms and thus, subtelomeres undergo epigenetic and genetic controls. Because of the properties of subtelomeres, Plasmodium falciparum evades host immunity by varying the antigenic and adhesive character of infected erythrocytes (see Subtelomeric transcripts).
Increased health awareness: Regular testing can help individuals identify health trends and potential issues early, enabling proactive health management. Convenience and accessibility: At-home collection and direct ordering eliminate barriers such as scheduling appointments, obtaining referrals, and taking time off work. Cost transparency: Upfront pricing allows consumers to make informed decisions about testing costs. Patient empowerment: Direct access to health data supports informed decision-making and engagement in personal health management. In 2014 the federal government issued a regulation directing clinical laboratories to provide individuals with access to their test data upon request.
Pertussis toxin is produced by virulent Bordetella pertussis and is responsible for the disease of whooping cough, a respiratory disease that can be fatal for infants. The severe, uncontrollable coughing makes it difficult to breathe causing the "whooping" sound that occurs with inhalation. Bordetella pertussis targets cilia of the upper respiratory tract which are damaged by the pertussis toxin, an ADP-ribosyltransferase that targets G-proteins. Cholera, characterized by copious watery diarrhea, is a potentially life-threatening illness transmitted through the fecal–oral route via food or water contaminated with toxigenic Vibrio cholerae. V. cholerae targets the intestines and secretes cholera toxin, an exotoxin and potent enterotoxin that acts as an ADP-ribosyltransferase targeting G-proteins. This causes an increase in intracellular cAMP and forces intestinal cells to expel significant amounts of water and electrolytes into the lumen.
The only primordial isotope of bismuth, bismuth-209, had long been regarded as the heaviest stable nuclide, but was suspected on theoretical grounds to be unstable to alpha decay. This was finally demonstrated in 2003, when researchers at the Institut d'astrophysique spatiale in Orsay, France, detected this decay; the best value of the half-life is now 2.01×1019 years (3 Bq/t), over 109 times longer than the estimated age of the universe. Due to its hugely long half-life, for all known medical and industrial applications, bismuth can be treated as stable. The radioactivity is of academic interest because bismuth is one of a few elements whose radioactivity was suspected and theoretically predicted before being detected in the laboratory. Bismuth has the longest known α-decay half-life, though tellurium-128 has the longest known by any mode: double beta decay at about 2.25×1024 years. Six isotopes of bismuth with short half-lives (210–215 inclusive, but not 210m) occur in the natural radioactive decay chains of actinium, radium, thorium, and neptunium, and more have been synthesized. (Though all primordial 237Np has long since decayed, it is continually regenerated by (n,2n) knockout reactions on natural 238U.) For medical use, bismuth-213 can be produced, as the parent isotope actinium-225, by bombarding radium with bremsstrahlung photons from a linear particle accelerator.
=== Brand names === As of July 2017, bromocriptine was sold under many brand names worldwide, including Abergin, Barlolin, Brameston, Brocriptin, Brom, Broma-Del, Bromergocryptine, Bromergon, Bromicon, Bromocorn, Bromocriptin, Bromocriptina, Bromocriptine, Bromocriptine mesilate, Bromocriptine mesylate, Bromocriptine methanesulfonate, Bromocriptini mesilas, Bromocriptinmesilat, Bromodel, Bromokriptin, Bromolac, Bromotine, Bromtine, Brotin, Butin, Corpadel, Cripsa, Criptine, Criten, Cycloset, Degala, Demil, Deparo, Deprolac, Diacriptin, Dopagon, Erenant, Grifocriptina, Gynodel, kirim, Kriptonal, Lactodel, Medocriptine, Melen, Padoparine, Palolactin, Parlodel, Pravidel, Proctinal, Ronalin, Semi-Brom, Serocriptin, Serocryptin, Suplac, Syntocriptine, Umprel, Unew, Updopa, Upnol B, and Volbro. As of July 2017 it was also sold as a combination drug with metformin as Diacriptin-M, and as a veterinary drug under the brand Pseudogravin.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== Placing organisms in food webs === Human domination of the biosphere has threatened global biodiversity, with uncertain consequences for ecosystems that provide food, clean air and water, and other valuable ecosystem services. Understanding the impacts of biodiversity loss on ecosystem function requires knowledge of the interactions between organisms within both the same and different positions in a food web (i.e. trophic levels). Food webs can have very complex structures. In many ecosystems, organisms at trophic levels higher than herbivores consume a variable combination of prey and producers, exhibiting different forms of omnivory. The loss of predator species can have a cascading effect on all organisms at lower trophic levels. Networks with more omnivores that consume species at multiple trophic levels may be more resilient to these top-down effects. Together, these factors demonstrate that a food web's structure affects its sensitivity to reductions in biodiversity, highlighting the importance of food web studies. Amino acid isotopes are an important tool used in this field. The abundance of 15N in some amino acids reflects an organism's position in a food web. This is due to the ways organisms metabolize different amino acids when they are consumed. Trophic amino acids (TrAAs) are first deaminated, meaning that the amino group is removed to produce an alpha-keto acid carbon skeleton. This reaction breaks a C-N bond, causing the amino acid to become more enriched in 15N due to a kinetic isotope effect.
== Factors affecting elasticity == In a given isotropic solid, with known theoretical elasticity for the bulk material in terms of Young's modulus, the effective elasticity will be governed by porosity. Generally a more porous material will exhibit lower stiffness. More specifically, the fraction of pores, their distribution at different sizes and the nature of the fluid with which they are filled give rise to different elastic behaviours in solids. For isotropic materials containing cracks, the presence of fractures affects the Young and the shear moduli perpendicular to the planes of the cracks, which decrease (Young's modulus faster than the shear modulus) as the fracture density increases, indicating that the presence of cracks makes bodies brittler. Microscopically, the stress–strain relationship of materials is in general governed by the Helmholtz free energy, a thermodynamic quantity. Molecules settle in the configuration which minimizes the free energy, subject to constraints derived from their structure, and, depending on whether the energy or the entropy term dominates the free energy, materials can broadly be classified as energy-elastic and entropy-elastic. As such, microscopic factors affecting the free energy, such as the equilibrium distance between molecules, can affect the elasticity of materials: for instance, in inorganic materials, as the equilibrium distance between molecules at 0 K increases, the bulk modulus decreases. The effect of temperature on elasticity is difficult to isolate, because there are numerous factors affecting it.
== Future potential applications == In the future, radioligand therapy may expand to include more α-emitter based treatments. Currently, β radioligand therapies are more commonly used in oncology. Clinical trials of α-emitters are underway due to their higher potency and ability to induce double-strand DNA breaks. There are multiple Actinium-225 based PSMA studies that will be launched in 2024. If these prove successful, there is potential for further studies and clinical trials to be done using α-emitters. There is potential for the future use of radioligand therapy in patients with malignant brain tumors. There have been recent developments in diagnostic tracers using radioligands, and with radioligand-based imaging techniques and in the field of theranostics.
Banting was appointed Senior Demonstrator in Medicine at the University of Toronto in 1922. Next year he was elected to the new Banting and Best Chair of Medical Research, endowed by the Legislature of the province of Ontario. He also served as Honorary Consulting Physician to the Toronto General, the Hospital for Sick Children, and the Toronto Western Hospital. At the Banting and Best Institute, he focused his research on silicosis, cancer, and the mechanisms of drowning. In 1938, Banting's interest in aviation medicine resulted in his participation with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in research concerning the physiological problems encountered by pilots operating high-altitude combat aircraft. Banting headed the RCAF's Number 1 Clinical Investigation Unit (CIU), which was housed in a secret facility on the grounds of the former Eglinton Hunt Club in Toronto. During the Second World War he investigated the problems of aviators, such as "blackout" (syncope). He also helped Wilbur Franks with the invention of the G-suit to stop pilots from blacking out when they were subjected to g-forces while turning or diving. Another of Banting's projects during the Second World War involved using and treating mustard gas burns. Banting even tested the gas and antidotes on himself to see if they were effective.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
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.
The first four residues of Selank reproduce the tuftsin sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg. A Pro-Gly-Pro extension at the C-terminus was added to slow enzymatic breakdown and extend residence time.
It holds marketing authorization in Russia, where nasal drop formulations are sold. No equivalent approval exists in the European Union, the United States, or most other countries.
Dry powder is best kept sealed, protected from light, and held at minus 20 degrees Celsius or below. Desiccant packaging helps limit moisture uptake because the material is hygroscopic. A sealed vial should be allowed to equilibrate to room temperature before opening to reduce condensation.