tuftsin is one of those subjects where the details matter more than the headlines. This page pulls together the background, the mechanisms, and the practical points readers ask about most.
Updated 2026-01-30. Numbers and descriptions here follow the published literature rather than marketing material.
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 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.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Common route | Intranasal | Also injected in some animal work |
| Solubility class | Freely soluble in water | Solid form is hygroscopic |
| Typical storage | About -20 degrees Celsius | Keep desiccated and dark |
| Purity method | Reverse-phase HPLC | Reported as area percent |
| Confirmatory method | Mass spectrometry | Verifies expected molecular mass |
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 with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, frequently abbreviated as TKPRPGP. It was designed as a structural analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring tetrapeptide released by enzymatic cleavage of the immunoglobulin heavy chain. The two additional proline residues at the C-terminal end extend the parent chain and change how the molecule behaves in solution. The free peptide has a calculated molecular mass of approximately 751.9 g/mol and is generally supplied as a lyophilised white to off-white powder.
Development work on the compound began in the 1980s and 1990s at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow, within the same research programme that produced the peptide Semax. Early investigators sought a tuftsin derivative with improved resistance to enzymatic breakdown and with activity in the central nervous system after peripheral administration. Most of the primary literature from this period was published in Russian, a factor that still shapes how easily the findings can be checked by outside groups.
Naming for this compound is not fully standardised in English sources. The spelling Selanc appears in some transliterations, and catalogue entries may instead list the peptide sequence itself as the identifier. Reference material sometimes groups it with other short synthetic peptides studied for behavioural effects, which can create confusion when citations are compared. Distinguishing the exact sequence from related tuftsin analogues is therefore a practical first step when reviewing any dataset or specification sheet.
The Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP) is a predatory academic publisher of open-access electronic journals, conference proceedings, and scientific anthologies that are of questionable quality. As of December 2014, it offered 244 English-language open-access journals in the areas of science, technology, business, economy, and medicine. The company has been accused of using email spam to solicit papers for submission. Although it has an address in southern California, according to Jeffrey Beall it is a Chinese operation. In 2014 there was a mass resignation of the editorial board of one of the company's journals, Advances in Anthropology, with the outgoing editor-in-chief saying of the publisher "For them it was only about making money. We were simply their 'front'."
In 1912, Frederick Gowland Hopkins demonstrated that unknown accessory factors found in milk, other than carbohydrates, proteins, and fats were necessary for growth in rats. Hopkins received a Nobel Prize for this discovery in 1929. By 1913, one of these substances was independently discovered by Elmer McCollum and Marguerite Davis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Lafayette Mendel and Thomas Burr Osborne at Yale University. McCollum and Davis ultimately received credit because they submitted their paper three weeks before Mendel and Osborne. Both papers appeared in the same issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1913. The "accessory factors" were termed "fat soluble" in 1918, and later "vitamin A" in 1920. In 1919, Harry Steenbock (University of Wisconsin–Madison) proposed a relationship between yellow plant pigments (β-carotene) and vitamin A. In 1931, Swiss chemist Paul Karrer described the chemical structure of vitamin A. Retinoic acid and retinol were first synthesized in 1946 and 1947 by two Dutch chemists, David Adriaan van Dorp and Jozef Ferdinand Arens.
=== Start date and nomenclature === No consensus exists as to when the French Revolutionary Wars ended and the Napoleonic Wars began. Possible dates include 9 November 1799, when Bonaparte seized power on 18 Brumaire, the date according to the Republican Calendar then in use; 18 May 1803, when Britain and France ended the one short period of peace between 1792 and 1814; or 2 December 1804, when Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor. British historians occasionally refer to the nearly continuous period of warfare from 1792 to 1815 as the Great French War, or as the final phase of the Anglo-French Second Hundred Years' War, spanning the period 1689 to 1815. Historian Mike Rapport (2013) suggested using the term "French Wars" to unambiguously describe the entire period from 1792 to 1815. In France, the Napoleonic Wars are generally integrated with the French Revolutionary Wars: Les guerres de la Révolution et de l'Empire. German historiography may count the War of the Second Coalition (1798/9–1801/2), during which Napoleon had seized power, as the Erster Napoleonischer Krieg ("First Napoleonic War"). In Dutch historiography, it is common to refer to the 7 major wars between 1792 and 1815 as the Coalition Wars (coalitieoorlogen), referring to the first two as the French Revolution Wars (Franse Revolutieoorlogen).
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
2 GSH + ROOH → GSSG + ROH + H2O Other enzymes, such as glutaredoxins, generate glutathione disulfide through thiol-disulfide exchange with protein disulfide bonds or other low molecular mass compounds, such as coenzyme A disulfide or dehydroascorbic acid.
== Targets == A "target" is produced within the pharmaceutical industry. Generally, the "target" is the naturally existing cellular or molecular structure involved in the pathology of interest where the drug-in-development is meant to act. However, the distinction between a "new" and "established" target can be made without a full understanding of just what a "target" is. This distinction is typically made by pharmaceutical companies engaged in the discovery and development of therapeutics. In an estimate from 2011, 435 human genome products were identified as therapeutic drug targets of FDA-approved drugs. "Established targets" are those for which there is a good scientific understanding, supported by a lengthy publication history, of both how the target functions in normal physiology and how it is involved in human pathology. This does not imply that the mechanism of action of drugs that are thought to act through a particular established target is fully understood. Rather, "established" relates directly to the amount of background information available on a target, in particular functional information. In general, "new targets" are all those targets that are not "established targets" but which have been or are the subject of drug discovery efforts. The majority of targets selected for drug discovery efforts are proteins, such as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and protein kinases.
The role that microRNAs play in cancer development and metastasis is under much scientific investigation and it is yet to be demonstrated whether microRNA mimics or antagomirs may serve as standard clinical treatments to suppress EMT or oncogenic microRNAs in cancers.
Shotwell (1922–1998), organic chemist Jean'ne Shreeve (born 1933), American organic chemist Dorothy Martin Simon (1919–2016), American physical chemist Susan Solomon (born 1956), Atmospheric chemist JoAnne Stubbe (born 1946), American biochemist Ida Noddack Tacke (1896–1978), German chemist and physicist Tsippy Tamiri (1952-2017), Israeli chemist Giuliana Tesoro (1921–2002), Polymer chemist Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), British chemist and Prime Minister Jean Thomas, British biochemist (chromatin) Martha J. B. Thomas (1926–2006), Analytical chemist and chemical engineer Ann E. Weber, American organic/medicinal chemist Karen Wetterhahn (1948–1997), American metal toxicologist Ruth R. Wexler (born 1955), American organic and medicinal chemist, discoverer of two marketed drugs M. Christina White (born 1970), American organometallic chemist Charlotte Williams, English inorganic chemist Angela K. Wilson, American computational, theoretical, and physical chemist Ruby K. Worner (1900–1995), American chemist and textiles expert Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921–2011), American biochemist Jenara Vicenta Arnal Yarza (1902–1960), Spanish chemist Jean Youatt (born 1925), Australian chemist, biochemist, and microbiologist Ada Yonath (born 1939), Israeli crystallographer, Nobel prize in chemistry 2009 Glaci Zancan (1935–2007), Brazilian biochemist, president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of the Science (SBPC) from 1999 to 2003
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
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.
Reported human trials are few, brief and originate mainly from one country. They describe effects on anxiety-related measures, but sample sizes are small and reporting is limited. The results are widely regarded as preliminary rather than confirmed.
Reverse-phase liquid chromatography is used to assess purity and separation of related impurities. Mass spectrometry confirms that the observed molecular mass matches the expected peptide. A certificate of analysis from the supplier is the usual document of record.
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.