A practical reference on freeze-thaw cycle: what it is, how it behaves, what the literature reports, and where the honest uncertainties sit.
This page was last updated on 2026-07-10 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
Development work on the compound began in the 1980s and 1990s at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow, within the same research programme that produced the peptide Semax. Early investigators sought a tuftsin derivative with improved resistance to enzymatic breakdown and with activity in the central nervous system after peripheral administration. Most of the primary literature from this period was published in Russian, a factor that still shapes how easily the findings can be checked by outside groups.
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.
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.
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.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical class | Synthetic heptapeptide | Tuftsin analogue |
| Sequence | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro | Single-letter form: TKPRPGP |
| Molecular formula | C33H57N11O9 | Calculated for the free peptide |
| Molecular weight | About 751.9 g/mol | Derived from the sequence |
| Appearance | White to off-white powder | Typical lyophilised form |
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.
Handling follows standard practice for research peptides. Material is weighed in a low-humidity environment because the powder absorbs atmospheric moisture. Purity is reported as the percentage area of the main peak in a chromatogram, with specifications commonly set at 95 percent or higher; values below that threshold indicate the presence of truncated or modified species. Residual trifluoroacetate from purification is often present and may affect mass balance. Certificates of analysis should state the analytical method, the column and gradient used, and the lot-specific retention time so that results can be compared across suppliers.
Proposed mechanisms centre on the GABAergic system. Animal and tissue studies report changes in GABA-A receptor expression and reduced activity of GABA transaminase, the enzyme that degrades GABA. Effects on monoamine turnover, including serotonin and dopamine pathways, are also described, and a separate line of work links the peptide to increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in hippocampal tissue. Most of these findings come from rodent models and cell preparations. How the individual observations combine into a single coherent mode of action is not settled.
Pharmacokinetic data are sparse and largely derived from animal work. After intranasal administration the peptide appears in plasma within minutes, and reported half-lives are short, on the order of minutes to tens of minutes. Degradation proceeds through ordinary proteolytic cleavage into constituent amino acids and smaller fragments. Direct evidence that intact Selank reaches brain tissue in meaningful amounts is limited, and the extent of blood-brain barrier penetration is debated. Some authors argue that fragments, not the parent peptide, carry much of the observed activity.
Pharmacokinetic data are limited. Like most short peptides, Selank is vulnerable to plasma and tissue peptidases, and its measured half-life in circulation is short, on a minutes scale. The Pro-Gly-Pro tail slows this degradation but does not eliminate it. Intranasal administration is the route described in most reports, with absorption through the nasal mucosa and a hypothesized path into the central nervous system that avoids the blood-brain barrier. Direct measurements of human brain exposure are unavailable, so distribution claims rest on inference from animal work.
Clinical evidence comes mainly from small studies conducted in Russia, several of which were open-label or lacked robust blinding. Reported outcomes include lower anxiety scores, changes in attention measures, and effects on asthenic states following illness. Sample sizes are typically in the tens of participants, and independent replication outside the region is scarce. Reviews published in English generally note the limited methodological quality of the underlying trials. Whether the compound produces clinically meaningful effects under rigorous conditions remains unresolved.
Dichloroacetic acid (DCA), sometimes called bichloroacetic acid (BCA), is the organic compound with formula CHCl2CO2H. It is an analogue of acetic acid, in which 2 of the 3 hydrogen atoms of the methyl group have been replaced by chlorine atoms. Like the other chloroacetic acids, it has various practical applications. The salts and esters of dichloroacetic acid are called dichloroacetates.
== Difficulties with research == Currently there are no existing compounds that can mimic the peptide bond of proline to other amino acids while maintaining only a cis or trans configuration because most mimics found will eventually change from one isomer to another. This makes research on the direct effect of each of the isomers on biological mechanisms more difficult. Also, the actual isomerization of proline is a slow process, meaning that any studying of the effects of the different isomers of proline takes a large amount of time to complete.
=== Supreme Court nominees === On March 17, 2016, Sanders said he would support Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court, though he added, "there are some more progressive judges out there." He opposed Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the court, saying that Gorsuch had "refused to answer legitimate questions". He also objected to Senate Republicans' use of the nuclear option to "choke off debate and ram [Gorsuch's] nomination through the Senate". He voted against Gorsuch's confirmation as an associate justice and against Trump's nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. In 2022, Sanders voted to confirm Joe Biden's nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== Major users' response === Beginning around 2000, as the scientific evidence and public concern about trans fat increased, major American users of trans fat began to switch to safer alternatives. The process received a large boost in 2003 when the FDA announced it would require trans fat labeling on packaged food starting in 2006. Packaged food companies then faced the choice of either eliminating trans fat from their products, or having to declare the trans fat on their nutrition label. Lawsuits in the U.S. against trans fat users also encouraged its removal. Major American fast food chains including McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Wendy's reduced and then removed partially hydrogenated oils (containing artificial trans fats) by 2009. This was a major step toward trans fat removal, as french fries were one of the largest sources of trans fat in the American diet, with a large serving of fries typically having about 6 grams of trans fat until around 2007. Two other events were important in the removal of trans fat. First, in 2013 the FDA announced it planned to completely ban artificial trans fat in the form of partially hydrogenated oil. Second, soon after this, Walmart informed its suppliers they needed to remove trans fat by 2015 if they wanted to continue to sell their products at its stores. As Walmart is the largest brick-and-mortar retailer in the U.S., mainstream food brands had little choice but to comply.
Taurine is partially destroyed by heat in processes such as baking and boiling. This is a concern for cat food, as cats have a dietary requirement for taurine and can easily become deficient. Either raw feeding or supplementing taurine can satisfy this requirement. Both lysine and taurine can mask the metallic flavor of potassium chloride, a salt substitute.
In 1962 they paid £10,000 for Topic, a weekly newspaper that had been launched the previous year by a group of entrepreneurs including the prime minister's son Maurice Macmillan, and which was now owned by Norman Mascall (a pyramid scheme fraudster of the era). By then the economic climate was too difficult, and like many publishers they found that there is limited appetite for weekly papers in the UK. Topic ceased publication at the end of 1962, but its journalists later became The Sunday Times Insight Team. Heseltine became managing director of Bow Group Publications in 1960, mainly looking after advertising and circulation for its Crossbow magazine (he does not seem to have written any articles or pamphlets himself). He contemplated suing The Observer for a limerick mocking his dress sense (spelling "Bow" as "Beau") for implying him to be homosexual, but was talked out of it. He remained a director until 1965. Bastion Properties was in trouble because of building costs and an unsatisfactory building manager. After rapid expansion, Heseltine's businesses were badly hit by the Selwyn Lloyd financial squeeze of 1961 and, still not yet thirty years old, he eventually owed £250,000 (around £4.5 million at 2016 prices). He states he was lent a badly needed £85,000 in December 1962 by a bank manager who retired the same day. He avoided bankruptcy by such tactics as paying bills only when threatened with legal action, although he eventually settled all his debts. It was during this stressful period of his life that he took up gardening as a serious hobby.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
17 September Jaws in the Med about swimming in the Mediterranean Sea; on Friday 20 July 1956 Royal Navy English teacher at Valletta Naval Technical School, forty-year-old Jack Smedley, went for a swim in St Thomas' Bay in Malta, when he was attacked by a great white shark, and never seen again; on 17 April 1987 a similar shark was landed by a fishing boat at Żurrieq in Malta, later researched by BBC weather presenter Ian Fergusson; board sailor José Luis Pérez-Díaz was attacked by a shark on 18 March 1986 at Tarifa in Andalusia, losing his foot; on Thursday 2 February 1989 scuba diver 47-year-old Luciano Constanzo was attacked by a 6-metre shark at Baratti in Tuscany, being the first shark attack in Italy for 27 years; sharks had been seen around Favignana, and its Mattanza; Franco Cigala-Fulgosi of the University of Parva; Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara of the Tethys Research Institute, and how pollution from the Po (river) has damaged life in the Adriatic Sea. Narrated by Bob Peck, produced by Frances Berrigan, directed by Jeremy Taylor, made by Cicada Films with Discovery Communications 24 September Under Fire, about current firefighting technology; it was made coincide with National Fire Safety Week; the dangers such as flashover, when combustible gases ignite at the same time, sometimes explosively; it featured York fire station officer John Taylor, and Harrogate fireman Stephen Fairweather, who looked at fires in this country and Sweden; Sweden began training for flashovers in 1984, and no-one has been killed since through that.
The ability to combine and analyze several samples simultaneously in one LC-MS run eliminates the need to analyze multiple data sets and eliminates run-to-run variation. Multiplexing reduces sample processing variability, improves specificity by quantifying the proteins from each condition simultaneously, and reduces turnaround time for multiple samples. The current available isobaric chemical tags facilitate the simultaneous analysis of up to 11 experimental samples.
i.e., independently from the initial size of the susceptible population the disease can never cause a proper epidemic outbreak. As a consequence, it is clear that both the basic reproduction number and the initial susceptibility are extremely important.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
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.
Selank is a synthetic analogue built on the tuftsin tetrapeptide Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg. Extra proline residues were added to the C-terminus during design work. That modification is intended to make the peptide less vulnerable to rapid enzymatic degradation.
Transliteration from Russian produces variant spellings such as Selanc. Many suppliers avoid the trade-style name entirely and list the peptide sequence. Comparing sequences rather than names is the reliable way to confirm two entries describe the same molecule.
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.