This is a working overview of Intranasal route, written for readers who want more than a one-paragraph summary but less than a textbook.
This page was last updated on 2026-06-25 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
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.
Characterization of Selank in a laboratory setting relies on standard peptide methods. Reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography separates the target from related impurities and provides a purity figure, commonly reported as 95 percent or higher. Mass spectrometry, typically electrospray ionization or matrix-assisted laser desorption, confirms the molecular mass and helps detect truncation or modification. Amino acid analysis can verify composition when a sequence-level check is needed. These techniques together establish identity and purity for a given lot.
Lyophilized Selank, the dry powder form, is generally stored frozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius or colder for long-term keeping. The solid is hygroscopic and should stay sealed, dry, and protected from light. Once dissolved, the peptide is less stable and is usually held refrigerated at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for short periods. Repeated freezing and thawing is avoided because it can promote aggregation and loss of activity. Buffers and pH choice also affect how long a solution remains usable.
| 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 |
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.
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.
Identity and purity are usually assessed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, with mass spectrometry used to confirm molecular mass and sequence information. Amino acid analysis and peptide mapping may supplement these methods. Certified reference standards are scarce, and many commercial lots are sold as research chemicals without a pharmacopoeial monograph. Regulatory treatment differs by country: Selank is a registered prescription medicine in Russia, while in the European Union and the United States it is not an approved drug and may fall under research-chemical or unapproved-product frameworks.
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.
Proposed mechanisms center on modulation of the GABA system, but no single molecular target has been confirmed. Rodent studies report changes in GABA-A receptor expression and in the turnover of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine in several brain regions. Increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor and its receptor have also been described after repeated administration. These findings come largely from animal models, and the degree to which they describe human neurochemistry remains an open question. The mechanism is best characterized as multi-system and not fully resolved.
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.
== Classification == This mushroom has been placed in the section Aztecorum by Gaston Guzman; other members of the section include Psilocybe aztecorum var. aztecorum, Psilocybe aztecorum var. bonetii, Psilocybe pseudoaztecorum, and Psilocybe quebecensis.
=== 2000 === 13 March The Secret Life of the Crash Test Dummy, about the biomechanics of car crashes; a typical crash test dummy cost around £100,000, with about three hundred individual parts, that had to be included by safety law, and new cars could not be sold until the dummy had tested it sufficiently; the Volvo 300 1980s television advert; Lt-Col Wayne Mattson of the USAF and a strange crash in New Mexico, one hundred miles north of the Trinity (nuclear test), and near White Sands Missile Range, where German V-2 missiles were being tested, which were conveniently blamed by the USAF on anthropomorphic dummies; John Melvin (engineer) and the legacy of USAF biophysicist and doctor Colonel John Stapp, who mostly invented aviation safety testing; John Stapp conducted gruesome horrific deceleration tests on himself; Alderson had made artificial limbs for injured USAF World War II pilots, so made a full artificial proto-human; John Stapp tested his dummies in vehicles; Clarence Ditlow and the Center for Auto Safety; in 1966 it became legal in the US for new cars to have been tested by dummies; mathematical models of injury were needed, to translate the acquired crash data into possible effects on the human body, worked out by mechanical engineer Walter Pilkey of the University of Virginia; Scottish orthopaedic surgeon Angus Wallace and impact speed on bone tensile strength; in 1976 the Hybrid III dummy was designed, the automotive industry standard design; David Abbott, advertising executive; the data for designing the crash test dummy, Hybrid III, was mostly derived from data procured for human male occupants - and typical (fiftieth percentile) males, not female, and females had much different bodies; child dummies were essentially smaller adult male dummies, which was not biologically true; new dummies were developed at the National Transportation Biomechanics Research Center. Narrated by Andrew Lincoln, produced by Cathy Rogers, directed by Peter Webber, made by RDF Television. Shown on Wednesday 17 January 2001 on The Nature of Things in Canada 20 March Rise and Fall of GM Food, about genetically modified food; Belgian geneticist Marc Van Montagu, of the University of Ghent, visits Havana in Cuba, where a new research centre opened with Carlos Borroto; protests by topless women; GM was largely first developed by Mexican geneticist Herrera Estrella, of the Centre of Investigation and Advanced Studies; Rob Fraley of Monsanto; US farmers spend $8bn dollars on herbicides and pesticides; Roger N. Beachy had a breakthrough in 1986 at the Washington University in St. Louis, now at the Donald Danforth Plant and Science Center; Monsanto made the first insecticide-resistant plant in 1987; many African farmers cannot afford insecticides; Cyrus Ndiritu of the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute; much food harvested in Africa does not last before it reaches the consumer; in 1990 Don Grierson of the Plant Science Division of the University of Nottingham found genes of ripening; Channapatna Prakash of Tuskegee University in Alabama; aluminium toxicity of soils in tropical countries affected yield; Julian Borger of The Guardian; biologist Mae-Wan Ho of the Open University; biologist John Gatehouse of the University of Durham, and the Pusztai affair at The Rowett Institute; Helen Browning, Chairman of the Soil Association; former Vice-Chancellor of UEA, Derek Burke; former Independent environment correspondent Richard D. North, who had grown out of love with the hard-line environmental movement; European farmers grew five times more produce than they did in the 1960s, and there were twice as many trees in the UK than in the 1920s; Renée Elliott of Planet Organic; around 100m children in Third World countries suffered from Vitamin A deficiency. Directed by Martin Durkin, made by his company Kugelblitz 27 March Simply Complex, about the physicist Murray Gell-Mann; by an accident, he devised strangeness of sub-atomic particles, in his mid-20s; he predicts an omega minus particle, which was found in 1962; he predicts that the proton and neutron were made of three triplet particles, which he called quarks from Finnegans Wake and his Eightfold way (physics), also predicted by George Zweig; he worked closely with Richard Feynman at Caltech in the 1960s; on 30 October 1969 he is told that he had won the Nobel Prize for Physics; his friendship with MIT mechanical engineer Seth Lloyd; British physicist Geoffrey West; the documentary is in a biographic informal style that Horizon has since often followed. Produced by Barbara Altounyan, directed by Celia Lowenstein, made by Diverse Productions 3 April Meningitis - Search for a Cure, 3,000 people in the UK had meningitis in 1999; microbiologist Martin C. J. Maiden; one in five died from meningococcal disease; damage is caused by the endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide); a healthy survey is carried out at Burford School; Mike Levin (paediatrician) at Imperial College, and how meningitis A is a huge danger in Africa; 60% of cases in the UK are meningitis B, and many such cases are treated at St Mary's Hospital, London; Brett Giroir of the Children's Medical Center Dallas; 17-year-old Amy Mansell from Whitstable was in a coma for five weeks. Narrated by Paul Brightwell, produced by David Dugan, directed by Jeremy Llewellyn-Jones, made by Windfall Films with Nova and WGBH Boston. It was shown on Nova as Killer Disease on Campus, episode 9 of season 29, shown on 3 September 2002, and shown under the original programme title as a half-hour programme on 6 November 2003 on Catalyst on ABC in Australia 10 April The Box, about flight recorders, with ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 which crashed on 11 May 1996; voice recorders have been compulsory since the late 1960s; Dukane Seacom make emergency underwater locator beacons (ULBs); the Boeing 737, which had around 21,000 take-offs per day, was believed to have unreliable rudder control since the 1980s, as shown in the United Airlines Flight 585 crash on 3 March 1991, having had two rudder incidents in the previous two weeks, with the aircraft flipping 35 seconds after take-off and crashing all in seven seconds; the electrohydraulic servo valve in the Boeing 737 rudder control unit was thought to be sometimes temperamental; Boeing claimed that the March 1991 crash was due to a rotor or lee wave, caused by nearby mountains; the USAir Flight 427 crash on 8 September 1994, where the aircraft flipped at 6,000 ft, in 28 seconds crashing; British Airways did not rely on their Penny & Giles quick access recorders, and would consolidate this data where anomalies were checked, so the NTSB needed BA's data for their 737 aircraft; this safer BA method was introduced by the previous British European Airways (BEA) when it had to prove to the CAA that its autoland system for the Trident was safe, in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Data Recording Programme which since 1990 has been collected by the British Airways Safety Information System (BASIS); the 1991 crash investigation concluded after 8 years in 1999, with Boeing ordered to redesign the servo valve. 9 October Full Throttle, about the technology and psychology of motor racing; Brazilian driver Christian Fittipaldi; the Eurofighter, controlled by computers, and due to enter RAF service in 2002; Archie Neill, BAE test pilot; Stephen Olvey, motor racing medical officer; driver Mark Blundell; the Long Beach Grand Prix in Los Angeles; Steve Clark, engineer for Mercedes; Brian Lisles and Peter Gibbons of Newman Haas Racing; the edge of performance envelope; Mario Andretti, former driver: Edward Winter of Sheffield Hallam University and predicting outcomes in sport, by intuition; John Rothwell of the Institute of Neurology in London, testing reflexes, by an MRI scanner, and how the brain stores instructions; psychologist Mike Land of the University of Sussex, and the psychology of prediction, and feedforward; life expectancy of racing drivers in the 1970s was short; racing drivers had risk positive personalities, and became accustomed to risk; psychologist Tim Wheeler; Jimmy Vasser of Chip Ganassi Racing; a female violinist plays La fille aux cheveux de lin; sports psychologist Brian Hemmings; Austrian driver Alexander Wurz of Benetton Formula; RAF SEPECAT Jaguar XZ103 of 41 Squadron; engineer Pat Symonds of Benetton Racing; Simon Taylor (journalist) of Motor Sport; Graham Rood of DERA Air Systems in north Hampshire. Narrated by Stephen Rashbrook, produced by Patrick Uden, directed by Andy Robbins, made by Uden Associates 16 October Lethal Seas: the Maelstrom, about ocean whirlpools; the Gulf of Corryvreckan in Scotland, Lofoten and Saltstraumen in Norway; with Prof Tsukasa Nishimura of Tokyo University of Science and Prof Walter Munk of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography; the Firth of Lorn in west Scotland has one of the world's most dangerous whirlpools, the Royal Navy avoids it; atmospheric physicist Peter Read; mathematician David Dritschel, and the Great Red Spot vortice; the dangerous Arran Rapids on the Cordero Channel in western Canada; Burkard Baschek of the Institute of Ocean Sciences, who dropped a CTD (instrument) into the torrential river currents; Tremble Island in the notorious Slingsby Channel, where a geophone was placed; the novel A Descent into the Maelström; Bjørn Gjevik, a fluid dynamicist in the Department of Mathematics, at the University of Oslo; strong tidal currents in the Naruto Strait in Japan, and the Naruto whirlpools. Narrated by Stephen Rashbrook, produced by Robert Sproul-Cran, directed by Kim Flitcroft, made by Northlight Productions with the Discovery Channel 23 October Einstein's Biggest Blunder, about calculations of the expansion of the universe; the documentary opens with a pastiche of the Star Wars opening credits; two physicists met in 1996, with a new radical proposal for explaining the many anomalies in the expansion of the universe - Andreas Albrecht (cosmologist) of the University of California, Davis and João Magueijo of Portugal; Dave Wark of the University of Sussex, visits Bern in Switzerland; Ruth Durrer of the University of Geneva; John E. Baldwin of the University of Cambridge, and the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment, which found that the Earth's rotational speed did not affect the speed of light in any way, alongside the Venus movement of The Planets; to account for this, Einstein made his field equations, and lambda - the cosmological constant was added by Einstein to account for how space-time would need to expand; Einstein's equations inferred that the expansion of the universe rested on inherently unstable conditions; due to the Doppler effect, background radiation from the Big Bang is now perceived as microwave radiation; Richard Ellis (astronomer) of Caltech; Einstein didn't believe in the Big Bang until a meeting with Hubble in 1932 in California; with the new theory of an expanding universe, the cosmological constant was now required, but the precise trajectory of the expansion of the universe could not be directly predicted, which led to the flatness problem; the theory of inflation was put forward by Alan Guth in the 1970s; when at St John's College, Cambridge, João Magueijo had the radical proposal that if the speed of light was higher, in the early universe, a cosmological horizon of sufficient distance would be possible, to explain the predicted conditions of the expansion of the early universe, and the cosmological constant problem; the Royal Society gave him a research fellowship to work at Imperial College; as further exploratory work was clocked up, with calculations inclya variable speed of light, the team of physicists looked at other applications for their controversial proposals, such as the flatness problem, and what happened before the Big Bang; in 1998 astrophysicist John Webb, at the University of Cambridge, worked on the theory of a variable speed of light, through investigating quasars, the most distant objects that can be seen; and by looking at supernovae, it was largely expected that any recorded data would show indications of a deceleration in the rate of expansion of the universe, but the data instead showed that the rate of expansion was - increasing, which led to the lambda-CDM model. Narrated by Scottish actor Matthew Zajac, directed by David Sington, made by Dox Productions 30 October The Science of Stress, with 42-year-old actor Angus Kennedy; endocrinologist Stafford Lightman of the University of Bristol; Vivette Glover, a perinatal psychobiological at Imperial College; Sir Cary Cooper, psychologist at the former UMIST; Carolyn M. Mazure, psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine; Charles Nemeroff, psychiatrist at Emory University School of Medicine. Narrated by Geoffrey Palmer, directed by Michael Samuels, produced by Bridget Sneyd, made by Lion Television and the Discovery Health Channel 7 December Science of Crime - Psychopath, with psychologists Robert D. Hare and Adrian Raine, about the psychopathic traits of insincere superficial charm, on the Psychopathy Checklist. Narrated by Neil Pearson, directed by John Purdie, produced by Rosalind Arden, made by Union Pictures 14 December Science of Crime - Criminal Evidence, about the forensic psychologist 49-year-old Kathy Reichs. Produced by Geoff Deehan, directed by Roger Pyke, made by Yap Films 21 December Science of Crime - Cybercops, the Hackers on Planet Earth conference; Cult of the Dead Cow, founded by Swamp Rat, and its Back Orifice software for accessing Windows 98; the Happy99 virus; wardialing; part of the High Technology Theft Apprehension and Prosecution Program in California. Narrated by Steven Mackintosh, written by Callum Macrae, directed by Witold Starecki
== Uses == Proline and its derivatives are often used as asymmetric catalysts in proline organocatalysis reactions. The CBS reduction and proline catalysed aldol condensation are prominent examples. In brewing, proteins rich in proline combine with polyphenols to produce haze (turbidity). L-Proline is an osmoprotectant and therefore is used in many pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications. The growth medium used in plant tissue culture may be supplemented with proline. This can increase growth, perhaps because it helps the plant tolerate the stresses of tissue culture. For proline's role in the stress response of plants, see § Biological activity.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
But severe indoor air quality conditions also can emerge in affluent, highly-developed locales; for example, children fell sick from indoor mold in an apartment complex in Riviera Beach, Florida. Typically, poor indoor air quality is often related to cooking and heating methods by burning biomass fuel, in the form of wood, charcoal, dung, and crop residue, in indoor environments that lack proper ventilation. Millions of people, primarily women and children, face serious health risks. In total, about three billion people in developing countries are affected by this problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that cooking-related indoor air pollution causes 3.8 million annual deaths. The Global Burden of Disease study estimated the number of deaths in 2017 at 1.6 million.
==== Hong Kong ==== The scandal led to an erosion of trust in locally produced infant formula and from then on, many Shenzhen residents and parallel traders travelled across the border to purchase powdered milk from Hong Kong shops. Lower confidence in mainland Chinese production, combined with the relaxation of visa requirements for mainland residents, had resulted in shortages of infant formula in Hong Kong for an extended time. Because of a great public outcry, the Import and Export (General) (Amendment) Regulation 2013 was passed in Hong Kong, prohibiting the unlicensed export of powdered formula, including milk and soya milk powder for infants and children under 36 months. According to the HK government, the regulation is not applicable to "powdered formula that is exported in the accompanied personal baggage of a person aged 16 or above leaving Hong Kong if the person did not leave Hong Kong in the last 24 hours and the formula does not exceed 1.8 kg [4 lb] in total net weight". Although the Hong Kong government imposed a strict 2-can limit on the export of infant formula in March 2013, spurred price differentials caused by sales tax on the mainland and lax customs, trafficking activity including for powdered milk has continued, exacerbating the Hong Kong-Mainland conflict. The catchment area for traffickers spread from Fan Ling and Sheung Shui southward to Yuen Long and Tuen Mun, causing localist camp such as Civic Passion and Hong Kong Indigenous to take to the streets in direct action in 2015.
== Biological significance == Steroids and their metabolites are often signalling molecules (the most notable examples are steroid hormones), and steroids and phospholipids are components of cell membranes. Steroids such as cholesterol decrease membrane fluidity. Similar to lipids, steroids are highly concentrated energy stores. However, they are not typically sources of energy; in mammals, they are normally metabolized and excreted. Steroids play critical roles in a number of disorders, including malignancies like prostate cancer, where steroid production inside and outside the tumor promotes cancer cell aggressiveness.
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.
Reverse-phase HPLC is the usual method and gives a percentage purity value. Mass spectrometry then confirms the molecular mass. Together they provide a basic identity and purity profile for a lot.