Selank: research

A Russian nasal anxiety peptide with uncertain long-term benefit and safety.

Also called: Селанк, TP-7, Tuftsin-PGP, TKPRPGP.

Nootropic peptides · Tuftsin-derived peptide studied for anxiety and cognition.

20 human reports may include repeated participants. People often knew which treatment they received; lasting benefit and safety remain unclear.

Studies

• Generalized anxiety and neurasthenia. rct, n=62, Generalized anxiety disorder or neurasthenia. A small active-comparator trial does not prove equivalence. (source)
• Immune markers during anxiety care. cohort, People with generalized anxiety or neurasthenia; parallel cell experiments. Blood-marker changes do not show protection from infections. (source)
• Selank versus phenazepam. rct, n=60, Adults with anxiety-phobic, hypochondriacal or somatoform disorders. Less sedation, but a smaller day-14 anxiety-score reduction. (source)
• Adding Selank to phenazepam. rct, n=70, Adults with anxiety-spectrum disorders. The day-14 responder comparison was not statistically significant. (source)
• Early phase 2 congress report. single-arm, n=21, Adults aged 18–45 with psychogenic anxiety who did not respond to placebo. A selected sample was studied in a conference report. (source)
• Rapid versus gradual response. single-arm, n=20, Adults aged 24–52 with generalized anxiety disorder. Response groups were defined after treatment without a placebo control. (source)
• Older adults with vascular symptoms. single-arm, n=15, Adults over 50 with vascular asthenic disorder and cognitive problems. A selected 15-person pilot reported improvement. (source)
• Parkinson disease and essential tremor. single-arm, n=40, 20 people with tremor-dominant Parkinson disease; 20 with essential tremor. An uncontrolled series studied mood and cognitive symptoms. (source)
• Huntington disease: six-person series. case-series, n=6, People with Huntington disease and mood symptoms. A clinical review includes six additional uncontrolled cases. (source)
• Chronic low-back nerve pain. single-arm, n=32, Adults with chronic lumbosacral radiculopathy. A clinical series reported less nerve-related pain. (source)
• Psychogenic overeating. rct, n=30, Adults with disordered eating and asthenic-neurotic symptoms. A small trial does not establish a weight-loss treatment. (source)
• Adjustment disorder: controlled comparison (2017). cohort, Adults with adjustment disorder selected from a larger stress survey. A nonrandomized comparison reported lower symptom scores with Selank than with no treatment. (source)
• Adjustment disorder: controlled comparison. cohort, n=30, Adults with adjustment disorder. A 15-versus-15 controlled comparison reported lower symptom scores with Selank at day 28. (source)
• Adding Selank to escitalopram. rct, n=55, Adults aged 18–55 with mixed anxiety and depressive symptoms. A small add-on comparison reported faster symptom change. (source)
• Mood symptoms around menopause. single-arm, n=30, Women with climacteric syndrome. An uncontrolled study reported symptom improvement. (source)
• Asthma with anxiety. cohort, n=70, Adults with asthma and anxiety. A co-treatment report contains conflicting dose arithmetic. (source)
• Atopic dermatitis: four groups. rct, n=124, Adults with moderate atopic dermatitis. Combination care improved outcomes with uncertain peptide contribution. (source)
• Tension-type headache with anxiety. cohort, n=40, Adults in a resort-care program with headache and anxiety. A small resort-care comparison reported symptom relief. (source)
• Post-COVID fatigue. cohort, n=64, People with post-COVID fatigue, reduced work capacity and emotional symptoms. A long co-treatment course has incomplete dosing detail. (source)
• Selank or Semax: brain connections. cohort, n=52, Healthy volunteers given Selank, Semax or placebo. The study tested separate drugs, not a Semax–Selank stack. (source)
• GABA receptor experiments. in-vitro, Rat brain membranes. Selank changed GABA binding and altered benzodiazepine effects in membrane assays. (source)
• BDNF expression in rats. animal, Rats. Intranasal Selank changed hippocampal BDNF expression. (source)
• Enkephalin breakdown assay. in-vitro, Human plasma in laboratory assays. Selank inhibited enkephalin breakdown; this was not a clinical dosing trial. (source)
• Identity of seized powders. in-vitro, Two seized preparations; laboratory analysis. Mass spectrometry identified Selank and Semax in seized preparations. (source)

Gaps: Human-study counts are identified reports, not a proven count of independent trials; some cohorts may overlap. No FDA or EMA label was found. Russian instructions are classified as clinical-practice by the KB policy. Russian registration was updated in 2025, but the full current government-approved instruction could not be retrieved. Older Russian instructions and current packs may differ in dosing and storage. Do not merge those versions. No completed interventional ClinicalTrials.gov record for these compounds was identified. A name search also returns irrelevant records. No Cochrane review or high-quality compound-specific meta-analysis was located. Long-term exposure, rare harms, pregnancy, lactation and conception washout periods are unknown. No verified human subcutaneous dosing trial, validated mixing method or after-mixing shelf life was found. Community frequency labels describe this search, not measured population prevalence. nMentions is used only for explicitly counted posters. No representative market survey established identity, amount, sterility or endotoxin quality for online products. No routine lab panel or evidence-based schedule for monitoring community use has been validated. WADA names neither peptide explicitly. Russian therapeutic registration complicates an automatic S0 classification. National EU status, UK import rules and broad Australian scheduling coverage remain unresolved. Chemical identity, HPLC purity, vial amount, microbial quality and endotoxin testing answer different questions. The 2008 PubMed abstract gives 30/32 treated; a shortened Russian reprint gives 42/20. The discrepancy remains unresolved. The 2005 congress abstract has an unclear course-dose time unit; a daily schedule is not reconstructed from it. The 2017 and 2018 adjustment reports may overlap but report 30 versus 15 treated patients. Independent enrollment remains unresolved. The Parkinson/tremor cohort is repeated in a 2017 review; only six additional Huntington cases are counted from that report. The 2019 asthma paper says two drops per nostril four times daily but also says 24 drops/day. No protocol uses this conflict. The 2024 post-COVID abstract omits whether drops are per nostril. No protocol is reconstructed from this wording. Other Russian dermatology and early Parkinson publications may reuse cohorts; full independent-study counting remains incomplete. Adverse-event bands use percentages from one small open trial; these are not reliable general-population incidence estimates. The manufacturer-hosted fixed schedule and older wider-range instruction are separate historical versions. No robust abuse, dependence, withdrawal or long-term interaction study was found. Claims of no dependence are not proven for arbitrary use.

Related to Selank

• Semax: A Russian nasal peptide with limited human evidence for brain and nerve effects.
• PE-22-28: An experimental mood peptide studied in mice, with no human trials found.
• Dihexa: An experimental memory compound with disputed animal research and no established human dose.
• P21: An experimental memory peptide with animal research and no established human dose or safety profile.
• Cerebrolysin: An injectable pig brain mixture with mixed stroke, brain-injury and dementia evidence.

Selank: the short version

Sources

• 503B Bulk Drug Substances List, FDA · FDA · 2026
• Bulk Drug Substances Nominated for Use in Compounding Under Section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, FDA · FDA · 2026
• Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding that May Present Significant Safety Risks, FDA · FDA · 2026
• MHRA Products | Home, MHRA · MHRA · 2026
• The Prohibited List, World Anti-Doping Agency · World Anti-Doping Agency · 2026
• Therapeutic Goods (Poisons Standard—October 2026) Instrument 2026, Australian Government · Australian Government · 2026
• Think twice before injecting peptides bought online: unauthorized products can seriously harm you, Health Canada · Health Canada · 2026
• Anaphylaxis, NHS · NHS · 2023
• Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG), Therapeutic Goods Administration · TGA
• Search, European Medicines Agency
• Semax-Related Bulk Drug Substances: Semax (Free Base) and Semax Acetate
• Symptoms of a stroke
• Селанк® | ЛП-№(010951)-(РГ-RU) | ГРЛС 2026
• POST-COVID SYNDROME, POSSIBILITIES FOR THERAPY OF ASTHENIC DISORDERS WITH SELANK, 2024
• Functional Connectomic Approach to Studying Selank and Semax Effects., Panikratova YR et al. · Doklady biological sciences : proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Biological sciences sections · 2020

Sources checked: 2026-10-18.

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