If you have been reading about Tuftsin analog and want a single page that covers the useful parts, this is it: definitions, context, how it is studied, and the questions that come up repeatedly.
Last reviewed on 2026-07-17. Where a claim depends on a specific study, the study is described rather than over-claimed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Peptide sequence | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro | Seven residues; tuftsin plus a Pro-Gly-Pro tail |
| Molecular formula | C33H57N11O9 | Commonly reported value for the free peptide |
| Monoisotopic mass | Roughly 751.4 Da | Average molecular mass near 751.9 Da |
| Appearance | White to off-white powder | Typically supplied as a lyophilized solid |
| Solubility class | Freely soluble in water | Also dissolves in saline and other polar solvents |
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.
Solubility behavior is a practical concern for handling. Selank dissolves readily in water and in common aqueous buffers, which simplifies preparation of working solutions. The choice of solvent, ionic strength, and pH can influence aggregation over time, particularly at higher concentrations. Aqueous solutions are typically sterile-filtered before use. Because stability depends on several variables, storage and handling notes should be treated as general guidance rather than fixed rules, and specific values are best confirmed against a certificate of analysis for each batch.
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.
Selank is a hydrophilic peptide and dissolves readily in water and in aqueous buffers. The lyophilised powder is typically a white to off-white solid. Because short peptides are prone to hydrolysis and oxidation, handling benefits from limiting exposure to heat, moisture and strong light. Working solutions are commonly prepared in sterile water or saline, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles are avoided to reduce aggregation and loss of activity. These practices reflect general laboratory convention rather than published stability specifications.
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.
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.
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.
While actinides have some established daily-life applications, such as in smoke detectors (americium) and gas mantles (thorium), they are mostly used in nuclear weapons and as fuel in nuclear reactors. The last two areas exploit the property of actinides to release enormous energy in nuclear reactions, which under certain conditions may become self-sustaining chain reactions.
(See Endogenous opiate precursor theory) After a preliminary 1998 study of three children with autism treated with secretin infusion reported improved GI function and dramatic improvement in behavior, many parents sought secretin treatment and a black market for the hormone developed quickly. Later studies found secretin clearly ineffective in treating autism.
Under this new franchise agreement, new owners were disallowed from living more than one hour from their restaurants – restricting them to smaller individuals or ownership groups and preventing large, multi-state corporations from owning franchises. Franchisees were also now prohibited from operating other chains, preventing them from diverting funds away from their Burger King holdings. This new policy effectively limited the size of franchisees and prevented larger franchises from challenging Burger King Corporation as Chart House had. Smith also sought to have BKC be the primary owner of new locations and rent or lease the restaurants to its franchises. This policy would allow the company to take over the operations of failing stores or evict those owners who would not conform to the company guidelines and policies. By 1988, parent company Pillsbury had relaxed many of Smith's changes, scaling back on construction of new locations, which resulted in stalled growth of the brand. Neglect of Burger King by new owner Grand Metropolitan and its successor Diageo further hurt the standing of the brand, causing significant financial damage to BK franchises and straining relations between the parties. By 2001 and after nearly 18 years of stagnant growth, the state of its franchises was beginning to affect the value of the company. One of the franchises most heavily affected by the lack of growth was the nearly 400-store AmeriKing Inc., one of the largest Burger King franchisees.
== Sources == Of the different forms of vitamin E, gamma-tocopherol (γ-tocopherol) is the most common form found in the North American diet, but alpha-tocopherol (α-tocopherol) is the most biologically active. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service, maintains a food composition database called FoodData Central. Common naturally occurring vitamin E sources are shown in the table, as are some alpha-tocopherol fortified sources such as ready-to-eat cereals, infant formulas, and liquid nutrition products.
For services to the community in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Malcolm John Kightley. For services to the Holy Sepulchre Church, Northampton. Lorna Jean King. For services to Jersey Hospice Care. Alison Kinnaird, Clarsach player and teacher, and glass engraver. For services to Music and to Art. Inna Kirillova. For services to Anglo/Russian relations. Captain Alex Kirk, lately Honorary Secretary, Hartlepool Lifeboat Station, Royal National Lifeboat Institution. For services to the RNLI. Bernadette Ann Kirk, Diabetes Specialist Nurse, Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust. For services to Health Care. Donald Henry Kirk. For services to the Royal London Aid Society. Wendy Patricia Knight. For services to the British Red Cross Society in Hampshire. Alan Keith Knowles. For services to Remploy in Norwich, Norfolk. Mildred Eveline Knowles. For services to disabled people in Berkshire. Luis Eric Rupert de la Torre. For services to The St. Nazaire Society. Thomas Percival Langridge, Founder, the Pahar Trust. For charitable services. David Stuart Large, Constable, Cheshire Constabulary. For services to the Police and to the community in Winsford. Margaret Elsie Ann Lawrance. For services to the community in Loughton, Essex. Iain William Lawrence, Managing Director, Thomas Smith & Company (Peterhead) Ltd. For services to the Textile Industry. R. Mary Lawrence, Caretaker, Irfon Valley County Primary School, Powys. For services to Education and to the community. Bernard Robert Lawson, Lord Mayor's Secretary, Manchester City Council. For services to Local Government.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== Early observational studies === From the 1890s onwards, associations of tobacco use with cancers and vascular disease were regularly reported. In 1930, Fritz Lickint of Dresden, Germany, published a meta-analysis citing 167 other works to link tobacco use to lung cancer. Lickint showed that people with lung cancer were likely to be smokers. He also argued that smoking tobacco was the best way to explain the fact that lung cancer struck men four or five times more often than women (since women smoked much less), and discussed the causal effect of smoking on cancers of the liver and bladder.
=== Photosynthetic carbohydrate synthesis === Photosynthetic carbohydrate synthesis in plants and certain bacteria is an anabolic process that produces glucose, cellulose, starch, lipids, and proteins from CO2. It uses the energy produced from the light-driven reactions of photosynthesis, and creates the precursors to these large molecules via carbon assimilation in the photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle, a.k.a. the Calvin cycle.
=== History of ideas === Brown, T.M. (1965). "Resource letter EEC-1 on the evolution of energy concepts from Galileo to Helmholtz". American Journal of Physics. 33 (10): 759–765. Bibcode:1965AmJPh..33..759B. doi:10.1119/1.1970980. Cardwell, D.S.L. (1971). From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age. London: Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-435-54150-7. Guillen, M. (1999). Five Equations That Changed the World. New York: Abacus. ISBN 978-0-349-11064-6. Hiebert, E.N. (1981). Historical Roots of the Principle of Conservation of Energy. Madison, Wis.: Ayer Co Pub. ISBN 978-0-405-13880-5. Kuhn, T.S. (1957) "Energy conservation as an example of simultaneous discovery", in M. Clagett (ed.) Critical Problems in the History of Science pp.321–56 Sarton, G.; Joule, J. P.; Carnot, Sadi (1929). "The discovery of the law of conservation of energy". Isis. 13: 18–49. doi:10.1086/346430. S2CID 145585492. Smith, C. (1998). The Science of Energy: Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain. London: Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-485-11431-7. Mach, E. (1872). History and Root of the Principles of the Conservation of Energy. Open Court Pub. Co., Illinois. Poincaré, H. (1905). Science and Hypothesis. Walter Scott Publishing Co. Ltd; Dover reprint, 1952. ISBN 978-0-486-60221-9. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), Chapter 8, "Energy and Thermo-dynamics"
Calcineurin, in turn, activates NFAT, which then translocates to the nucleus. NFAT is a transcription factor that activates the transcription of a pleiotropic set of genes, most notable, IL-2, a cytokine that promotes long-term proliferation of activated T cells. PLC-γ can also initiate the NF-κB pathway. DAG activates PKC-θ, which then phosphorylates CARMA1, causing it to unfold and function as a scaffold. The cytosolic domains bind an adapter BCL10 via CARD (Caspase activation and recruitment domains) domains; that then binds TRAF6, which is ubiquitinated at K63. This form of ubiquitination does not lead to degradation of target proteins. Rather, it serves to recruit NEMO, IKKα and -β, and TAB1-2/ TAK1. TAK 1 phosphorylates IKK-β, which then phosphorylates IκB allowing for K48 ubiquitination: leads to proteasomal degradation. Rel A and p50 can then enter the nucleus and bind the NF-κB response element. This coupled with NFAT signaling allows for complete activation of the IL-2 gene. While in most cases activation is dependent on TCR recognition of antigen, alternative pathways for activation have been described. For example, cytotoxic T cells have been shown to become activated when targeted by other CD8 T cells leading to tolerization of the latter. In spring 2014, the T-Cell Activation in Space (TCAS) experiment was launched to the International Space Station on the SpaceX CRS-3 mission to study how "deficiencies in the human immune system are affected by a microgravity environment". T cell activation is modulated by reactive oxygen species.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
The sequence is Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, written TKPRPGP in one-letter code. It combines the tetrapeptide tuftsin with a carboxyl-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro extension. This full sequence identifies the molecule more precisely than the research name.
No peptide with this exact sequence has been identified as an endogenous substance. It is a laboratory-designed analog of tuftsin, a naturally occurring immunomodulatory tetrapeptide. The Pro-Gly-Pro extension has no known natural source.
Proline introduces conformational constraints that make a peptide less accessible to common peptidases. This is a standard stabilization strategy in peptide design. The added residues also increase the distance between the active tuftsin portion and typical cleavage sites.
The sequence is Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, commonly written as TKPRPGP. It shares the first four residues with tuftsin and carries three prolines in the chain. The proline-rich tail is the main structural feature that separates it from the parent tetrapeptide.