If you have been reading about TP-7 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.
Updated 2026-07-08. Numbers and descriptions here follow the published literature rather than marketing material.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro. It was designed at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a structural analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring tetrapeptide fragment of the immunoglobulin heavy chain. The added Pro-Gly-Pro tail was intended to slow enzymatic degradation and extend biological activity. In Russia it is registered as an anxiolytic nasal preparation, while regulators elsewhere have not approved it for clinical use.
Proposed mechanisms centre on modulation of the GABAergic system, with reports of altered expression of genes related to GABA-A receptor subunits and changed monoamine turnover. Some studies describe inhibition of enkephalinase, the enzyme that degrades endogenous enkephalins, which may prolong opioid peptide signalling. Effects on brain-derived neurotrophic factor and on cytokine expression have also been reported. These findings come largely from animal models and small human studies, and the precise primary target remains unresolved.
Laboratory work relies on standard behavioral paradigms. Rodents are tested in the elevated plus maze, open field, and passive avoidance tasks, with outcomes compared against diazepam or vehicle controls. Intranasal dosing is used most often because it bypasses first-pass metabolism, though intraperitoneal and intravenous routes also appear in published protocols. Biochemical endpoints include tissue BDNF concentrations, cytokine levels, and monoamine metabolites. Human data are limited to small Russian trials reporting reduced anxiety scores; most were not prospectively registered, and few employed independent outcome assessment.
Measuring peptide exposure inside the brain is technically difficult. Selank is degraded rapidly in plasma, and assays must separate intact peptide from fragments, which favors targeted mass spectrometry over immunoassays alone. Reported half-lives are short, on the order of minutes, so effects observed hours later are attributed to downstream signaling rather than to the parent compound. Blood-brain barrier permeability is debated and rarely quantified directly. Gaps include absent dose-response characterization, inconsistent reporting of purity, and almost no pharmacokinetic data from human participants.
Selank is studied chiefly as an animal-model anxiolytic with proposed secondary effects on memory and immune signaling. Reported mechanisms include modulation of the GABA-A receptor complex, inhibition of enkephalin-degrading enzymes, and shifts in monoamine turnover within limbic structures. Some experiments describe increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the hippocampus after repeated dosing. No single molecular target has been confirmed, and the peptide does not bind any receptor with the selectivity typical of a conventional small-molecule drug. Mechanism therefore remains a set of hypotheses rather than an established pathway.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular formula | C33H57N11O9 | Free peptide form |
| Molecular mass | About 751.9 Da | Calculated average mass |
| Amino acid sequence | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro | Single-letter form TKPRPGP |
| Structural basis | Tuftsin analogue | Extended version of a natural tetrapeptide |
| Development origin | Russian Academy of Sciences | Work carried out from the 1980s onward |
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.
Lyophilised material kept dry at minus 20 degrees Celsius or colder is the most stable form, and suppliers commonly state a shelf life of two years or more under those conditions. Once dissolved, degradation accelerates through hydrolysis and deamidation, particularly at alkaline pH or elevated temperature. Working solutions are usually divided into single-use aliquots to avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles. The choice of reconstitution solvent affects both stability and the ionic strength of the final preparation.
Reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection near 214 nanometres is the standard purity method. Mass spectrometry, typically electrospray ionisation, confirms identity through the expected mass-to-charge pattern. Amino acid analysis can verify composition independently. Chiral purity requires separate techniques such as derivatisation followed by chromatographic separation, and such data are rarely reported for research-grade material.
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.
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.
Characterization of Selank in a laboratory setting relies on standard peptide methods. Reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography separates the target from related impurities and provides a purity figure, commonly reported as 95 percent or higher. Mass spectrometry, typically electrospray ionization or matrix-assisted laser desorption, confirms the molecular mass and helps detect truncation or modification. Amino acid analysis can verify composition when a sequence-level check is needed. These techniques together establish identity and purity for a given lot.
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.
Chattopadhyay's contributions in membrane and receptor biology and biophysics have been recognized by several awards and prizes. These include The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Ranbaxy Research Award, Prof. G.N. Ramachandran Gold Medal, SERB Distinguished Fellowship, Prof. G.N. Ramachandran 60th Birthday Medal and J.C. Bose Fellowship. He is an elected Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of Biology, Royal Society of Chemistry, and all the Indian Academies of Science. Fellow, The World Academy of Sciences (2017) Fellow, The Royal Society of Biology (2017) Fellow, The Royal Society of Chemistry (2013) Fellow, Indian National Science Academy (2005) Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences (1999) Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, India (1998) Fellow, West Bengal Academy of Science & Technology (2010) Fellow, Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences (2003) Fellow, Telangana Academy of Sciences (2015) Google Scholar
Biochemical differences between different organisms and humans are useful for drug development. For instance, penicillin kills bacteria by inhibiting the bacterial enzyme DD-transpeptidase, destroying the development of the bacterial cell wall and inducing cell death. Thus, the study of binding sites is relevant to many fields of research, including cancer mechanisms, drug formulation, and physiological regulation. The formulation of an inhibitor to mute a protein's function is a common form of pharmaceutical therapy.
The MEROPS protease database includes the following ten families of asparagine peptide lyases, which are included in 6 different clans of proteases. Proteolytic enzymes are classified into families based on sequence similarity. Each family includes proteolytic enzymes with homologous sequences and common catalytic type. Clans are groups of proteolytic enzymes families with related structures, where catalytic type is not conserved. *Not yet included in IUBMB recommendations. The ten different families of asparagine peptide lyases are distributed in three different types: Viral coat proteins Autotransporter proteins Intein-containing proteins There are five families of viral coat proteins (N1, N2, N8, N7 and N5), two families of autotransporter proteins (N6 and N4) and three families of intein-containing proteins (N9, N10 and N11).
There are at least three known isoforms of this protein in humans produced by alternative splicing: isoform 1, of length 442 amino acids, isoform 2 of length 261 amino acids and isoform 3 of length 169 amino acids. MIPOL1 contains two coiled-coil domains in its C-terminus at positions 107 – 212 and 253 – 435 (shown in Fig.1). A bipartite nuclear localization signal is predicted at position 128 – 143. The following post-translational modifications are predicted using bioinformatics tools for MIPOL1. Multiple phosphorylation sites are predicted for this protein, that are conserved in close orthologs, including a Casein kinase 1 (CK1) site, three Casein kinase 2 (CK2) sites, and three NEK2 sites. The exact structure of the MIPOL1 has not yet been characterized. Homology-based and de novo predictions of its tertiary structure suggest that it may consist of inter-twined alpha helices, forming coiled-coil domains (see Fig.4.).
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
In 1950, two Danish physicists Otto Kofoed-Hansen and Karl-Ove Nielsen discovered a new technique for producing radioisotopes which enabled production of isotopes with shorter half-lives than earlier methods. The Copenhagen experiment they carried out included a simplified version of the same elements used in modern on-line experiments. Ten years later, in Vienna, at a symposium about separating radioisotopes, plans for an 'on-line' isotope separator were published. Using these plans, CERN's Nuclear Chemistry Group (NCG) built a prototype on-line mass separator coupled to target and ion source, which was bombarded by a 600 MeV proton beam delivered by CERN's the Synchro-Cyclotron. The test was a success and showed that the SC was an ideal machine for on-line rare isotope production. The plan for an electromagnetic isotope separator was developed during 1963–4 by European nuclear physicists and, in late 1964, their proposal was accepted by the CERN Director-General and the ISOLDE project began.
Immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) is based on the specific coordinate covalent bond of amino acids, particularly histidine, to metals. This technique works by allowing proteins with an affinity for metal ions to be retained in a column containing immobilized metal ions, such as cobalt, nickel, or copper for the purification of histidine-containing proteins or peptides, iron, zinc or gallium for the purification of phosphorylated proteins or peptides. Many naturally occurring proteins do not have an affinity for metal ions, therefore recombinant DNA technology can be used to introduce such a protein tag into the relevant gene. Methods used to elute the protein of interest include changing the pH, or adding a competitive molecule, such as imidazole.
The topology of a β-sheet describes the order of hydrogen-bonded β-strands along the backbone. For example, the flavodoxin fold has a five-stranded, parallel β-sheet with topology 21345; thus, the edge strands are β-strand 2 and β-strand 5 along the backbone. Spelled out explicitly, β-strand 2 is H-bonded to β-strand 1, which is H-bonded to β-strand 3, which is H-bonded to β-strand 4, which is H-bonded to β-strand 5, the other edge strand. In the same system, the Greek key motif described above has a 4123 topology. The secondary structure of a β-sheet can be described roughly by giving the number of strands, their topology, and whether their hydrogen bonds are parallel or antiparallel. β-sheets can be open, meaning that they have two edge strands (as in the flavodoxin fold or the immunoglobulin fold) or they can be closed β-barrels (such as the TIM barrel). β-Barrels are often described by their stagger or shear. Some open β-sheets are very curved and fold over on themselves (as in the SH3 domain) or form horseshoe shapes (as in the ribonuclease inhibitor). Open β-sheets can assemble face-to-face (such as the β-propeller domain or immunoglobulin fold) or edge-to-edge, forming one big β-sheet.
Heteroduplex analysis (HDA) is a method in biochemistry used to detect point mutations in DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) since 1992. Heteroduplexes are dsDNA molecules that have one or more mismatched pairs, on the other hand homoduplexes are dsDNA which are perfectly paired. This method of analysis depend up on the fact that heteroduplexes shows reduced mobility relative to the homoduplex DNA. heteroduplexes are formed between different DNA alleles. In a mixture of wild-type and mutant amplified DNA, heteroduplexes are formed in mutant alleles and homoduplexes are formed in wild-type alleles. There are two types of heteroduplexes based on type and extent of mutation in the DNA. Small deletions or insertion create bulge-type heteroduplexes which is stable and is verified by electron microscope. Single base substitutions creates more unstable heteroduplexes called bubble-type heteroduplexes, because of low stability it is difficult to visualize in electron microscopy. HDA is widely used for rapid screening of mutation of the 3 bp p.F508del deletion in the CFTR gene.
Passive immunity is the immunity acquired by the transfer of ready-made antibodies from one individual to another. Passive immunity can occur naturally, such as when maternal antibodies are transferred to the foetus through the placenta, and can also be induced artificially, when high levels of human (or horse) antibodies specific for a pathogen or toxin are transferred to non-immune individuals. Passive immunization is used when there is a high risk of infection and insufficient time for the body to develop its own immune response, or to reduce the symptoms of ongoing or immunosuppressive diseases. Passive immunity provides immediate protection, but the body does not develop memory, therefore the patient is at risk of being infected by the same pathogen later.
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5-Oxo-ETE and 5-oxo-15(S)-hydroxy-ETE but not 5-hydroxy members of the 5-HETE family such as 5-(S)-HETE activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ). This activation does not proceed through OXER1; rather, it involves the direct binding of the oxo analog to PPARγ with 5-oxo-15-(S)-hydroxy-ETE being more potent than 5-oxo-ETE in binding and activating PPARγ. The Activation of OXER1 receptor and PPARγ by the oxo analogs can have opposing effects on cell function. For example, 5-oxo-ETE-bound OXER1 stimulates whereas 5-oxo-ETE-bound PPARγ inhibits the proliferation of various types of human cancer cell lines; this results in 5-oxo-ETE and 5-oxo-15-(S)-HETE having considerably less potency than anticipated in stimulating these cancer cells to proliferate relative to the potency of 5-(S)-HETE, a relationship not closely following the potencies of these three compounds in activating OXER1. 5-Oxo-ETE relaxes pre-contracted human bronchi by a mechanism that does not appear to involve OXER1 but is otherwise undefined.
MAPseq or Multiplexed Analysis of Projections by Sequencing is a RNA-Seq based method for high-throughput mapping of neuronal projections. It was developed by Anthony Zador and his team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and published in Neuron, a Cell Press magazine. It has been cited over 300 times. The method works by uniquely labeling neurons in a source region by injecting a viral library encoding a diverse collection of RNA sequences ("barcodes"). The barcode mRNA is expressed at high levels and transported into the axon terminals at distal target projection regions. Following this, the cells from source and putative target regions of interest are harvested, and their RNA is extracted and sequenced. By matching the presence of the unique "barcode" in the source and target tissue, one can map the projections of neuron in a one-to-many fashion. RNA-Seq Patch-sequencing
Although the mechanism by which Hmd acts is unknown, the iron-containing cofactor is in part responsible for the catalytic activity. High concentrations of CO inhibit the enzyme as well, implicating iron as the center of catalysis. It has been proposed that the iron functions to bind H2 and the substrate methenyltetrahydromethanopterin, organizing these two reactants in close proximity.
Creating a CCP involves three steps: initiation, multiplication and mixture. The population then goes into the maintenance phase. A number of lines, generally 7-30, with interesting properties, such as yield or baking quality, are selected and all possible crosses of them are done. If many lines of different genetic background are used, a huge amount of genetic diversity will be present. Seeds from crosses are sown out and harvested separately for a growing season or two until enough seeds are available. All seeds are mixed in equal portions to produce the first CCP generation. The population is grown repeatedly and possibly changes due to natural selection. Each year seeds are saved after harvest, and used as seed for the next growing season. Plants that are successful under the prevailing growing conditions will give more seeds and contribute more to the next generation, compared to less successful plants. Disease will cull susceptible plants and the population will over time become resistant to the common diseases, but only if the initial population has resistance genes present.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
It is a seven-amino-acid peptide, Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, produced by chemical synthesis rather than extracted from biological tissue. Its design is based on tuftsin, a natural immunomodulatory tetrapeptide. The C-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro segment is a common stabilising motif in short regulatory peptides.
The core four residues correspond to tuftsin, which occurs naturally as part of immunoglobulin G. The full seven-residue sequence, however, is not a known endogenous peptide. It is a laboratory-designed analogue intended to combine tuftsin-like activity with greater resistance to breakdown.
No single receptor has been confirmed as the primary target. Reports describe involvement of the GABAergic system, interference with enkephalin degradation, and shifts in neurotrophic factor expression. Because these observations come from different models and assays, they have not yet been integrated into one accepted mechanism.
Intranasal administration predominates in both animal and human research because it avoids hepatic first-pass metabolism. Injectable and intraperitoneal routes appear in animal work mainly for comparison.