The short version of mass spectrometry fits in a sentence. The long version — which is the one that helps — is below.
Reviewed 2026-02-07. Anything still debated is marked as such rather than presented as settled.
Reported pharmacological effects center on reduced anxiety-like behavior in animal models and on measures of memory and learning. Proposed contributing mechanisms include modulation of GABAergic signaling, shifts in monoamine turnover, and changes in the activity of enzymes that degrade neuropeptides. Effects on the expression of genes linked to neuroplasticity have also been described. No single molecular target is widely accepted, and whether the behavioral findings arise from one pathway or several remains an open question.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro. It was designed as a stabilized analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring tetrapeptide fragment derived from the immunoglobulin heavy chain. The additional Pro-Gly-Pro segment at the carboxyl terminus is intended to slow enzymatic cleavage. The compound is usually described in the literature as a synthetic peptide with anxiolytic and cognitive-related activity, a label that reflects a research context rather than an approved therapeutic category.
Most published work on selank originates from a small number of research groups in the Russian Federation. A large share of that record appears in Russian-language journals, which limits access for readers who rely on English-indexed databases. Independent replication by laboratories outside the original research network is sparse in publicly available sources. This concentration of origin and language is a frequently noted feature when the compound is summarized in broader reviews of synthetic peptides.
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.
Proposed mechanisms centre on modulation of the GABAergic system, with reports of altered expression of genes related to GABA-A receptor subunits and changed monoamine turnover. Some studies describe inhibition of enkephalinase, the enzyme that degrades endogenous enkephalins, which may prolong opioid peptide signalling. Effects on brain-derived neurotrophic factor and on cytokine expression have also been reported. These findings come largely from animal models and small human studies, and the precise primary target remains unresolved.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular formula | C33H57N11O9 | Derived from the seven-residue sequence |
| Molecular weight | About 751.9 g/mol | Average mass; the monoisotopic value is slightly lower |
| Residue count | Seven amino acids | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro |
| Parent compound | Tuftsin (Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg) | Selank extends tuftsin at the C-terminus |
| Compound class | Synthetic short peptide | Studied in a research setting; not a licensed drug in most markets |
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.
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.
Selank is not a naturally occurring peptide and has no known endogenous counterpart in human physiology. Russian-language sources frequently call it TP-7, while English-language sources use the name Selank almost exclusively. Database indexing is uneven, partly because early reports appeared in regional journals that are not widely cataloged. Some summaries describe the material as a tuftsin analog and others as a synthetic heptapeptide; the labels overlap rather than conflict. Citing the primary sequence resolves ambiguity more reliably than the research or trade name alone.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, written TKPRPGP in one-letter notation. Its structure consists of the immunomodulatory tetrapeptide tuftsin, Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg, extended at the carboxyl terminus by a Pro-Gly-Pro segment. The molecular formula is commonly given as C33H57N11O9, corresponding to a monoisotopic mass near 751.4 Da and an average molecular mass near 751.9 Da. All seven residues are proteinogenic amino acids, and the molecule carries no modified side chains or non-natural linkages.
The compound was designed at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences during the 1980s and 1990s. The stated design goal was to retain the immunomodulatory and central nervous system activity attributed to tuftsin while improving resistance to enzymatic breakdown. Adding a proline-rich tail to the short parent peptide was a deliberate strategy, because proline residues restrict the conformations available to many peptidases. The same laboratory produced Semax, an ACTH fragment analog, and both compounds were developed in parallel as short, enzymatically stabilized peptides intended for intranasal use.
Peptide stability depends strongly on temperature, moisture, and pH. Lyophilized Selank is generally most stable when stored cold and dry, with freezer temperatures commonly used for long-term storage. In solution, the compound is susceptible to hydrolysis and to microbial growth if it is not handled aseptically. The C-terminal proline-rich extension appears to slow enzymatic cleavage relative to tuftsin, though quantitative degradation rates vary with the matrix and the conditions tested. Published stability data specific to Selank remain sparse.
Quality assessment of Selank samples typically combines purity determination with identity confirmation and counter-ion analysis. Purity is usually reported as a percentage by chromatographic area, with values above 95 percent often quoted for research-grade material. Water content and residual solvents are checked in lyophilized batches because they affect both stability and accurate mass determination. A reported purity figure does not by itself establish that a sample is the intended sequence, so orthogonal methods are needed to rule out sequence isomers or truncation products.
Characterization of Selank in laboratory settings relies on standard peptide analytical techniques. Reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography separates the peptide from related impurities and degradation products, while mass spectrometry confirms molecular identity through accurate mass measurement. Amino acid analysis and peptide sequencing verify the primary structure when reference material is unavailable. Because Selank is a short chain, fragmentation-based analysis produces a diagnostic ion pattern that supports confident identification.
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.
Wet market is a regional English term for a marketplace, also called a public market or a traditional market, that sells fresh foods, such as meat, fish, and produce, and other consumption-oriented perishable goods in a non-supermarket setting, as distinguished from "dry markets" that sell durable goods, such as fabrics, kitchenwares and electronics. The term was popularised by the Singaporean government in the 1970s and did not originate in mainland China, where such markets are called "farmers' markets" or "produce markets". It was little known in English before the COVID-19 pandemic, when coverage of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan brought it to global prominence. Such markets include a wide variety of types, such as farmers' markets, fish markets, and wildlife markets. Not all of them sell live animals, but the term is sometimes used to signify a live animal market in which vendors slaughter animals upon customer purchase, such as is done with poultry in Hong Kong. Such markets are common in many parts of the world, notably in China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. They often play critical roles in urban food security due to factors of pricing, freshness of food, social interaction, and local cultures. Despite their importance in local food systems and livelihoods, they often lack essential food safety infrastructure, such as cold chains, standardized hygiene practices, regular inspection, and product traceability.
Cellular expression of glycoproteins can be evaluated by various molecular biology methods, which include RNA and protein measurements. However, cellular expression of gangliosides, which are sialic acid-containing glycosphingolipids, cannot be evaluated by these methods. Instead, it can be measured using anti-glycan antibodies, and despite the large collection of such antibodies in a community resource database, they are not always available for each ganglioside. Therefore, indirect measurement of ganglioside expression by quantifying the levels of fucosyltransferases and glycosyltransferases that complete glycan synthesis is an alternative. There is evidence that expression of these enzymes and the production of gangliosides strongly correlate. At least four representatives of fucosyltransferases and several glycosyltransferases including sialyltransferases are responsible for the synthesis of gangliosides that can serve as SeV receptors. All these proteins are often overexpressed in various tumors, and their expression levels correlate with the metastatic status of the tumor and the shorter life span of the patients. Thus, these enzymes are also potential biomarkers of SeV-oncolytic infectivity.
== Society and culture == Shortages of medical calcium gluconate were reported in November 2012 and November 2015 in the United States. Historically, intravenous calcium gluconate was used as an antidote for black widow spider envenomation, often in conjunction with muscle relaxants. This therapy, however, has since been shown to be ineffective.
Attention is being turned to the still difficult, but less unpromising, problem of radio detection and numerical considerations on the method of detection by reflected radio waves will be submitted when required. The letter was discussed at the first official meeting of the Tizard Committee on 28 January 1935. The utility of the concept was evident to all attending, but the question remained whether it was actually possible. Albert Rowe and Wimperis both checked the maths and it appeared to be correct. They immediately wrote back asking for a more detailed consideration. Watt and Wilkins followed up with a 14 February secret memo entitled Detection and Location of Aircraft by Radio Means. In the new memo, Watson-Watt and Wilkins first considered various natural emanations from the aircraft – light, heat and radio waves from the engine ignition system – and demonstrated that these were too easy for the enemy to mask to a level that would be undetectable at reasonable ranges. They concluded that radio waves from their own transmitter would be needed. Wilkins gave specific calculations for the expected reflectivity of an aircraft. The received signal would be only 10−19 times as strong as the transmitted one, but such sensitivity was considered to be within the state of the art. To reach this goal, a further improvement in receiver sensitivity of two times was assumed.
The American tea culture is a part of the history of the United States, as tea has appealed to all classes and has adapted to the customs of the United States. The Native peoples of North America drank various herbal teas, the most common of which was Yaupon tea, known as the "Beloved drink", "Cassina", or "White drink". It was brewed from yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria), which is native to the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Native American tribes like the Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Timucua used the tea as a daily drink, as a social drink used in meetings, and in various rituals, many of which were associated with purification. Yaupon tea was adopted by European colonists as early as the 17th century who gave it various names like "Black drink", "Carolina Tea", "South Seas Tea", or "Indian tea".
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Office for National Statistics data for the year up to June 2023 shows fewer UK births than deaths over a 12-month period for the first time since the 1970s, with 16,300 fewer births occurring, while net migration increased the population by 662,400 to an estimated 68,265,200. Housing and planning minister, Matthew Pennycook, is referred to the parliamentary commissioner for standards for not revealing his close relationship with the author of the Institute for Fiscal Studies paper which Labour ministers have used as evidence to support their introduction of 20% value-added tax (VAT) on private school fees. 9 October – The All England Club announces it will adopt electronic line calling from 2025, meaning line judges will disappear from the Wimbledon Championships. 10 October A new King Charles III heraldic Coat of Arms, alongside the new Lesser Arms, used by the UK government, both by artist Timothy Noad are officially unveiled. A further 65 women are reported to have contacted the BBC regarding sexual abuse by the late former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed. The Prince and Princess of Wales visit Southport, where they meet the families of the three children killed in the July stabbing. It is the Princess's first public engagement since her cancer treatment. A technical fault with the BBC Weather website and app leads to incorrect forecasts of hurricane winds in the UK and internationally, with one forecast predicting winds of 13,508 mph in London.
=== Neuroprotective effects === Citicoline may have neuroprotective effects due to its preservation of cardiolipin and sphingomyelin, preservation of arachidonic acid content of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine, partial restoration of phosphatidylcholine levels, and stimulation of glutathione synthesis and glutathione reductase activity. Citicoline's effects may also be explained by the reduction of phospholipase A2 activity. Citicoline increases phosphatidylcholine synthesis. The mechanism for this may be:
Pfizer Inc. ( FY-zər) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1849 in New York by German entrepreneurs Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart, Pfizer is one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in North America. Pfizer develops and produces medication and vaccines for immunology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, and neurology. The company's largest products by sales are Eliquis (apixaban) ($7.9 billion in 2025 revenues, 13% of total revenues), Prevnar (a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) ($6.5 billion in 2025 revenues, 10% of total revenues), Paxlovid (Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) ($2.4 billion in 2025 revenues, 4% of total revenues), Vyndaqel (tafamidis) ($6.4 billion in 2025 revenues, 10% of total revenues), Comirnaty (the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine) ($4.4 billion in 2025 revenues, 7% of total revenues), and Ibrance (palbociclib) ($4.1 billion in 2025 revenues, 7% of total revenues). In 2025, 59% of the company's revenues came from the United States, 5% came from China, and 36% came from other countries. The company is ranked fifth on the list of largest biomedical companies by revenue. It is ranked the 69th on the Fortune 500 and 73rd on the Forbes Global 2000.
== History == The drug appeared briefly on the black market in the early 1980s, prior to the enactment of the Federal Analog Act, which sought to regulate entire classes of substances based on structural similarity rather than scheduling each one individually as it emerged. Fentanyl analogs have been responsible for hundreds of fatalities across Europe and the former Soviet republics since their re-emergence in Estonia in the early 2000s, and new derivatives continue to appear. In 2013, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) established an aggregate production quota of 2 grams (0.071 oz) for acetyl-alpha-methylfentanyl.
A recent DNA analysis reported in media outlets, based on a preprint study from the University of Padova, identified a proportion of genetic material, DNA traces, found on the Shroud of Turin, suggest the extensive exposure of the cloth in the Mediterranean region and the possibility that the yarn was produced in India. The researchers stated that this may reflect historical trade connections, such as the import of linen or material from regions near the Indus Valley, rather than indicating a geographic origin of the cloth. The study also noted that the detected DNA reflects material accumulated over periods of handling and environmental exposure, and does not establish the age or history of the shroud. In 2016, Italian palynologist Marzia Boi proposed based on published pictures of pollen from the shroud that the most abundant pollen on the shroud was from genus Helichrysum and suggested that the former could have come from balms and ointments used in first century AD burial rituals. However, the researchers who studied the pollen directly had identified it as from Gundelia tournefortii.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
== Post-World-War-II life and work == In 1947, aged 31, Crick began studying biology and became part of an important migration of physical scientists into biological research. This migration was made possible by the newly won influence of physicists such as Sir John Randall, who had helped win the war with inventions such as radar. Crick had to adjust from the "elegance and deep simplicity" of physics to the "elaborate chemical mechanisms that natural selection had evolved over billions of years." He described this transition as, "almost as if one had to be born again". According to Crick, the experience of learning physics had taught him something important—hubris—and the conviction that since physics was already a success, great advances should also be possible in other sciences such as biology. Crick felt that this attitude encouraged him to be more daring than typical biologists who tended to concern themselves with the daunting problems of biology and not the past successes of physics. For the better part of two years, Crick worked on the physical properties of cytoplasm at Cambridge's Strangeways Research Laboratory, headed by Honor Bridget Fell, with a Medical Research Council studentship, until he joined Max Perutz and John Kendrew at the Cavendish Laboratory. The Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge was under the general direction of Sir Lawrence Bragg, who had won the Nobel Prize in 1915 at the age of 25.
A chiral auxiliary is an organic compound which couples to the starting material to form a new compound which can then undergo diastereoselective reactions via intramolecular asymmetric induction. At the end of the reaction the auxiliary is removed, under conditions that will not cause racemization of the product. It is typically then recovered for future use.
The atmospheric results were supplemented by the underground test data accumulated in the 1960s at the Nevada Test Site, as it was hoped that powerful explosions conducted in confined space might result in improved yields and heavier isotopes. Apart from traditional uranium charges, combinations of uranium with americium and thorium have been tried, as well as a mixed plutonium-neptunium charge. They were less successful in terms of yield (of material), which was attributed to stronger losses of heavy isotopes due to enhanced fission rates in heavy-element charges. Isolation of the products was found to be rather problematic, as the explosions were spreading debris through melting and vaporizing rocks under the great depth of 300–600 meters, and drilling to such depth in order to extract the products was both slow and inefficient in terms of collected volumes. Among the nine underground tests, which were carried between 1962 and 1969 and codenamed Anacostia (5.2 kilotons, 1962), Kennebec (<5 kilotons, 1963), Par (38 kilotons, 1964), Barbel (<20 kilotons, 1964), Tweed (<20 kilotons, 1965), Cyclamen (13 kilotons, 1966), Kankakee (20–200 kilotons, 1966), Vulcan (25 kilotons, 1966) and Hutch (20–200 kilotons, 1969), the last one was most powerful and had the highest yield of transuranium elements. In the dependence on the atomic mass number, the yield showed a saw-tooth behavior with the lower values for odd isotopes, due to their higher fission rates.
Extended insulin zinc insulin (Ultralente) Insulin glargine (Lantus) Insulin detemir (Levemir) Insulin degludec (Tresiba) Insulin degludec is sometimes classed separately as an "ultra-long" acting insulin due to its duration of action of about 42 hours, compared with 24 hours for most other long-acting insulin preparations. As a systematic review of studies comparing insulin detemir, insulin glargine, insulin degludec and NPH insulin did not show any clear benefits or serious adverse effects for any particular form of insulin for nocturnal hypoglycemia, severe hypoglycemia, glycated hemoglobin A1c, non-fatal myocardial infarction/stroke, health-related quality of life or all-cause mortality. The same review did not find any differences in effects of using these insulin analogues between adults and children. Most oral anti-diabetic agents are contraindicated in pregnancy, in which case insulin is preferred. Insulin is not administered by other routes, although this has been studied. An inhaled form was briefly licensed but was subsequently withdrawn.
== Honors and awards == Albania: On 20 June 2008 received a copy of the key of the city of Tirana on the occasion of his state visit to Albania. Also on 20 June, Thaçi was awarded the Honorary Citizen of the city of Vlorë for his "historic role in making Kosovo an independent state". In January 2015 Thaçi was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Tirana for his contribution in peace-building in Western Balkans, promoting the process of European integration and achieving the historic Brussels Agreement with Serbia. On 4 October 2016 he was awarded honorary citizenship of Shkodër in a ceremony led by the mayor of the northern Albanian city. Switzerland: On 1 July 2012, Thaçi received a doctor honoris causa as a doctor of international relations from the Geneva School of Diplomacy. Montenegro: On 4 April 2015, on Ulcinj Day, Thaçi received the title of Honorary Citizen of Ulcinj by the town's municipal government.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, designed as a metabolically stabilized analogue of the endogenous tetrapeptide tuftsin. It has been studied mainly against anxiety-related and cognitive endpoints rather than as an approved medicine in most jurisdictions.
Tuftsin contains four residues, while selank carries an additional Pro-Gly-Pro segment at the carboxyl end. That extension is intended to reduce enzymatic cleavage. Comparative pharmacokinetic data in humans remain limited.
No single receptor target is widely accepted as the definitive mediator of the reported effects. Proposed contributors include GABAergic modulation, shifts in monoamine turnover, and altered neuropeptide degradation. The mechanism is treated in the literature as unresolved.
It is a seven-amino-acid peptide, Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, produced by chemical synthesis rather than extracted from biological tissue. Its design is based on tuftsin, a natural immunomodulatory tetrapeptide. The C-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro segment is a common stabilising motif in short regulatory peptides.