What is Selank studied for?

Published August 28, 2026 · Artemis Labs

Selank is a synthetic seven-amino-acid peptide, Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, built by attaching a three-residue Pro-Gly-Pro tail to tuftsin — a four-residue fragment of an antibody protein the immune system already makes. It was developed in Russia and nearly all of its research comes from there. The published work covers three areas that are usually studied separately: anxiety behavior in rodents, inflammation-related gene expression in immune tissue, and stress effects on the gut. Several human trials exist, which sets Selank apart from many research peptides. Every one compared it against a benzodiazepine-class drug rather than against placebo, and none was run outside Russia.

Key findings

Verified identity: sequence TKPRPGP, formula C33H57N11O9, molecular weight 751.9, CAS 129954-34-3, PubChem CID 11765600. Two database identifiers widely published for Selank — including on our own page until now — point at completely different molecules, which we document on our identity page.
Its parent, tuftsin, is a four-residue immune peptide (CID 156080). An independent group describes the relationship exactly: a heptapeptide “has a structure of tuftsin, to which three natural L-amino-acids Pro-Gly-Pro are attached” (PMID 16963804).
In binding experiments, “Selank affect the [3H]GABA binding as a positive allosteric modulator” (PMID 30255741) — but the same gene-expression effect seen in rats did not reproduce in human cells.
An outside US review is blunt about the state of the evidence: Selank is among “poorly studied Russian drugs with GABAergic mechanisms” (PMID 34396551).

Where Selank came from

Tuftsin is a natural four-residue peptide — Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg — released from an antibody molecule, and it acts on immune cells. Short peptides like it break down in the body within minutes, which makes them hard to study and harder still to use.

The design solution was to attach Pro-Gly-Pro, a three-residue tail that resists the enzymes which chew peptides from the ends. The resulting seven-residue molecule is Selank. Peptides built this way form a small family in the Russian literature, sometimes called glyprolines, and Semax — the subject of our Semax and Selank comparison — is built on exactly the same principle with a different parent fragment.

So the shape of the molecule tells you the shape of the research. It began as immune biology, and it has been studied ever since at the junction between immune signaling and behavior.

What the research actually covers

Anxiety and stress behavior. The deepest lane by volume. Rats and mice in elevated plus maze tests, social interaction tests, restraint-stress models and confrontation models. This work is also where the human trials came from — see our page on the human record.

The GABA system. Selank’s behavioral effects resemble those of benzodiazepines, so researchers asked whether it works on the same system. The answer is genuinely unresolved, and the honest version is on our page on the GABAergic research, including the study in human cells that found nothing.

Immune and inflammation gene expression. A series of studies measured how Selank changes the expression of inflammation-related genes in mouse spleen — with one result that undercuts the whole idea of Selank as a distinct molecule, covered on our immune research page.

Withdrawal and dependence models. Alcohol and morphine withdrawal in rodents, where Selank has been compared directly against diazepam. Our page on that research includes the comparison our own product page previously got backwards.

The gut. Rats under chronic restraint stress, looking at the colon wall and the gut’s bacterial population.

What human research exists

More than for most peptides in this category, and less than the phrase “clinical trials” suggests.

Four published human studies appear in the record, all Russian, all in the same psychiatry journal, with heavily overlapping author lists. A 2008 study compared Selank against medazepam in 62 patients with generalized anxiety disorder and neurasthenia. A 2014 study compared it against phenazepam in 60 patients. A 2015 study tested it as an addition to phenazepam in 70 patients. A separate 2008 paper looked at immune measures in patients with anxiety-asthenic disorders. A 2020 imaging study measured brain network connectivity in humans.

Two things follow from that list, and both belong in any honest summary. Every trial used a benzodiazepine-class comparator, not a placebo — so the reported result is “similar to” or “added to” an active drug, never “better than nothing”. And phenazepam and medazepam are not approved in the United States, so the comparison offers no familiar reference point for a US reader.

What the research does not show

There is no placebo-controlled trial of Selank in the published record. There is no trial conducted outside Russia, no replication outside Russia, no meta-analysis and no systematic review.

The mechanism is not settled. The gene-expression result that supports a GABAergic mechanism came from rat brain tissue; when the same research group ran the same 84-gene panel on human neuroblastoma cells, they “found no changes in the mRNA levels of the genes studied under the effect of Selank.”

And there is a contradiction in the literature that we publish rather than resolve. A 2020 Belgian forensic paper states that Selank and Semax “have not completed any clinical trials,” while the Russian trials above plainly exist and are indexed on PubMed. Both statements are defensible about different things — trials were run and published; none amounts to a completed registrational program of the kind Western regulators recognize. Anyone summarizing Selank has to hold both.

Frequently asked questions

Is Selank the same as tuftsin?

No. Tuftsin is the four-residue parent; Selank is tuftsin plus a Pro-Gly-Pro tail, giving seven residues and a different molecular weight, formula and PubChem record.

Is Selank approved anywhere?

It is not FDA-approved. We do not publish claims about its regulatory status in other countries, because we could not verify any from a primary source.

How does Selank compare to Semax?

Both are Pro-Gly-Pro-extended Russian research peptides with different parent fragments and different research literatures. Our Semax and Selank comparison covers what the published work compares directly.

What is the strongest single finding?

Probably the withdrawal work, because it uses an active comparator and reports the comparison honestly — including where Selank came out behind diazepam. See our stress and withdrawal page.

References

Vyunova TV, Andreeva L, Shevchenko K, Myasoedov N. Protein Pept Lett. 2018. PMID 30255741.
Zozulya AA, Neznamov GG, Siuniakov TS, Kost NV, Gabaeva MV, Sokolov OIu, et al. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2008. PMID 18454096.
Filatova E, Kasian A, Kolomin T, Rybalkina E, Alieva A, Andreeva L, et al. Front Pharmacol. 2017. PMID 28293190.
Vanhee C, Francotte A, Janvier S, Deconinck E. Drug Test Anal. 2020. PMID 31667971. DOI 10.1002/dta.2717.
Doyno CR, White CM. J Clin Pharmacol. 2021. PMID 34396551.
Czabak-Garbacz R, Cygan B, Wolański L, Kozlovsky I. Pharmacol Rep. 2006. PMID 16963804.

Methodology: this page draws on every PubMed record returned for Selank, retrieved and read in full on August 28, 2026, plus PubChem’s chemical records for Selank and tuftsin retrieved the same day.

All compounds sold by Artemis Labs are for laboratory research use only. Nothing on this page is medical advice, and no statement has been evaluated by the FDA.