Selank: Discovery & Research History
Selank (Synthetic Tuftsin Analog) — how it was originally discovered, and what it has been studied for since.
How Selank Was Discovered
Selank's starting point is tuftsin, an immune-system peptide first described by Victor Najjar at Tufts University in the 1970s, known for enhancing the activity of macrophages and neutrophils. Tuftsin had an obvious practical problem, though: it breaks down in the bloodstream within seconds, which made it impractical to study or use as anything beyond a short-lived signal.
In the 1990s, a research team led by Nikolai Myasoedov at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, working with the V.V. Zakusov Research Institute of Pharmacology, set out to fix that. Their approach was to append a stabilizing tripeptide — proline-glycine-proline (Pro-Gly-Pro) — onto tuftsin's C-terminus. The resulting heptapeptide, Selank, kept tuftsin's original immunomodulatory activity but gained a second, unexpected property: pronounced effects on neural and behavioral research models, alongside far greater resistance to enzymatic breakdown. Selank was subsequently approved for clinical use in Russia in 2009, specifically for generalized anxiety disorder and neurasthenia.
What Selank Has Been Studied For
Selank's research use today tracks the neurotropic effects that emerged unexpectedly from the original tuftsin-stabilization work, rather than its original immunological starting point.
- Anxiolytic mechanism research
- Cognitive and nootropic studies
- Neuropeptide behavior research
Selank discovery & history questions
Does Selank's research history mean it's approved for a particular use?
No. This page describes how Selank was originally discovered and what it has been studied for since — it is historical and educational context, not a claim about current regulatory approval, safety, or legal status anywhere. KYIN Peptides sells Selank strictly for laboratory research use.
What has Selank been studied for in research?
Selank is most commonly studied in anxiolytic mechanism research, cognitive and nootropic studies, and neuropeptide behavior research.
Looking for Selank specs and pricing?
View purity, available sizes, and pricing on the product page.