tuftsin raises a handful of sensible questions. This page answers them in order, starting with the fundamentals and moving to applications.
Reviewed 2025-11-07. 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.
Quantification in biological matrices relies on liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry with stable-isotope internal standards. Low plasma concentrations and adsorption to container surfaces both complicate measurement. Solid-phase extraction is often needed to reduce matrix interference before injection. Reported limits of quantification differ widely between laboratories, which makes direct comparison of pharmacokinetic results difficult and limits meta-analysis.
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.
| 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 |
Identity and purity of selank are established with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The peptide elutes from C18 columns with acetonitrile gradients in water containing trifluoroacetic acid or formic acid, and detection is usually performed by ultraviolet absorbance near 214 nm. Electrospray ionization in positive mode gives a doubly protonated ion near m/z 377, consistent with a mass of about 752 Da. Amino acid analysis or tandem mass spectrometry of fragment ions confirms the sequence. Because the molecule has no aromatic residues, it lacks a usable 280 nm chromophore, so low-wavelength detection or mass spectrometry is required.
Peptide bonds in selank are susceptible to hydrolysis under strongly acidic or basic conditions, and the terminal proline residues are vulnerable to exopeptidase activity in biological samples. Lyophilized powder stored dry at -20 °C typically remains stable for extended periods, whereas aqueous solutions degrade faster and may lose measurable purity within days to weeks depending on pH, temperature, and microbial load. Repeated freeze-thaw cycles promote aggregation and adsorption to container surfaces. For analytical work, solutions are usually prepared fresh, kept cold, and used within a single working day.
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.
If a molecule possesses the desired ligase activity, a streptavidin matrix can be used to recover the active molecules. Lincoln and Joyce used in vitro evolution to develop ribozyme ligases capable of self-replication in about an hour, via the joining of pre-synthesized highly complementary oligonucleotides. Although not true catalysts, the creation of artificial self-cleaving riboswitches, termed aptazymes, has also been an active area of research. Riboswitches are regulatory RNA motifs that change their structure in response to a small molecule ligand to regulate translation. While there are many known natural riboswitches that bind a wide array of metabolites and other small organic molecules, only one ribozyme based on a riboswitch has been described: glmS. Early work in characterizing self-cleaving riboswitches was focused on using theophylline as the ligand. In these studies, an RNA hairpin is formed which blocks the ribosome binding site, thus inhibiting translation. In the presence of the ligand, in these cases theophylline, the regulatory RNA region is cleaved off, allowing the ribosome to bind and translate the target gene. Much of this RNA engineering work was based on rational design and previously determined RNA structures rather than directed evolution as in the above examples. More recent work has broadened the ligands used in ribozyme riboswitches to include thymine pyrophosphate. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting has also been used to engineering aptazymes.
The Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is annually awarded to author(s) of outstanding scientific paper published in the Research Articles or Reports sections of Science. Established in 1923, funded by Newcomb Cleveland who remained anonymous until his death in 1951, and for this period it was known as the AAAS Thousand Dollar Prize. "The prize was inspired by Mr. Cleveland's belief that it was the scientist who counted and who needed the encouragement an unexpected monetary award could give." The present rules were instituted in 1975, previously it had gone to the author(s) of noteworthy papers, representing an outstanding contribution to science, presented in a regular session, sectional or societal, during the AAAS Annual Meeting. It is now sponsored by the Fodor Family Trust and includes a prize of $25,000. The prize's current sponsorship has a notable connection to a past winner: Stephen P. A. Fodor, founder of Affymetrix, received the prize in 1990 for a paper introducing microarray technology. Affymetrix added its support to the prize in 2003, more than doubling its monetary value at the time. Winners receive a bronze medal, a share of the prize money, and reimbursement for travel to the AAAS Annual Meeting. Final selection is determined by a panel of distinguished scientists appointed by the editor-in-chief of Science. The annual contest period runs from the first issue of June through the last issue of the following May. No prize was awarded in 1942–1945, 1948, 1973, 1975, or 1976.
== See also == Interactome Protein–protein interaction Protein function prediction Protein structure prediction Protein structure prediction software Gene prediction Macromolecular docking Protein–DNA interaction site predictor Two-hybrid screening FastContact
Grape seed extract is an industrial derivative of whole grape seeds. The extract (GSPE) contains proanthocyanidins. Grape seed extract quality is measured by the content of procyanidins which are formed from proanthocyanidins. Generally, grape seed extract quality contains 95% procyanidins, but potency varies among products. Eating foods or beverages high in procyanidin results in an astringent sensation in the mouth.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== 15 September === The RSF claimed to have retaken Kazgeil and Al-Riash in North Kordofan. The RSF was accused of forcibly displacing residents of the village of Tura, north of El Fasher, and converting it into a garrison.
Dr. George D. Winter (1927–1981) was the British-born pioneer of moist wound healing. In 1962, while working at the Department of Biomechanics and Surgical Materials at the University of London, Winter published his landmark Nature paper Formation of the scab and the rate of epithelisation of superficial wounds in the skin of the young domestic pig (Nature 193:293 1962) where he demonstrated that, contrary to the conventional wisdom that wounds should be allowed to dry out and form scabs to promote healing, wounds instead healed faster if kept moist. Winter formed multiple partial thickness wounds on the backs of pigs, half left open to the air and half covered with a polymer film to keep them hydrated. The latter wounds healed faster, as measured by the migration of new epithelium on the wound bed. This work began the evolution of modern wound dressings that promote moist wound healing. George D. Winter was the first president of the European Society for Biomaterials and has an annual award named after him.
== News media == Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (Netherlands national news agency), a news agency from the Netherlands American News Project, an independent internet news broadcaster Associated Negro Press, an American news service from 1919 to 1964
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== Data mining approach === Computer SAR models typically calculate a relatively large number of features. Because those lack structural interpretation ability, the preprocessing steps face a feature selection problem (i.e., which structural features should be interpreted to determine the structure-activity relationship). Feature selection can be accomplished by visual inspection (qualitative selection by a human); by data mining; or by molecule mining. A typical data mining based prediction uses e.g. support vector machines, decision trees, artificial neural networks for inducing a predictive learning model. Molecule mining approaches, a special case of structured data mining approaches, apply a similarity matrix based prediction or an automatic fragmentation scheme into molecular substructures. Furthermore, there exist also approaches using maximum common subgraph searches or graph kernels.
=== 3 February === Abdallah Hussein, a senior RSF commander was killed by an SAF airstrike in al-Kamelin in Gezira State. The SAF claimed to have broke the siege of its Corps of Engineers garrison in the Al 'Aylafun area, and retook the al-Asaylat, Um Daw Ban, and Al 'Aylafun areas of the East Nile locality. The SAF said it plans to continue advances to recapture the Soba Bridge. According to the state health minister of South Kordofan, the SPLM-N (al-Hilu) killed 44 people after shelling the main market, residential neighborhoods, and temporary shelters in schools in Kadugli. Twenty-five people were killed in an SAF airstrike in Nyala.
=== Adults === The widely used rule calculating normal maximum ESR values in adults (98% confidence limit) is given by a formula devised in 1983 from a study of ≈1000 individuals over the age of 20: The normal values of ESR in men is age (in years) divided by 2; for women, the normal value is age (in years) plus 10, divided by 2.
Overall, transacetalization plays a lesser role in forming protective acetals; they are formed as a rule from glycols through dehydration. Normally a simple glycol like ethylene glycol or 1,3-propadiol is used for acetalization. Modern variants also use glycols, but with the hydroxyl hydrogens replaced with a trimethylsilyl group. Acetals can be removed in acidic aqueous conditions. For those ends, the mineral acids are appropriate acids. Acetone is a common cosolvent, used to promote dissolution. For a non-acidic cleavage technique, a palladium(II) chloride acetonitrile complex in acetone or iron(III) chloride on silica gel can be performed with workup in chloroform. Cyclic acetals are very much more stable against acid hydrolysis than acyclic acetals. Consequently acyclic acetals are used practically only when a very mild cleavage is required or when two different protected carbonyl groups must be differentiated in their liberation. Besides the O,O-acetals, the S,O- and S,S-acetals also have an application, albeit scant, as carbonyl protecting groups too. Thiols, which one begins with to form these acetals, have a very unpleasant stench and are poisonous, which severely limit their applications. Thioacetals and the mixed S,O-acetals are, unlike the pure O,O-acetals, very much stabler against acid hydrolysis. This enables the selective cleavage of the latter in the presence of sulfur-protected carbonyl groups. The formation of S,S-acetals normally follows analogously to the O,O-acetals with acid catalysis from a dithiol and the carbonyl compound.
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.
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.