Originally developed through neuropeptide research. Now one of the most discussed compounds in the category.
Selank
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide based on tuftsin, a short immunomodulatory fragment of the immunoglobulin G molecule, extended with a stabilising sequence to resist rapid degradation. It was developed at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Its starting point is the curiosity: tuftsin is an immune-system fragment, not a neuropeptide. Selank came from asking what an immune-derived sequence does in the central nervous system, a question that sits across two fields usually studied separately.
Research covers anxiety-related behaviour in rodent models, effects on GABAergic and monoamine systems, and gene expression analyses. Clinical work exists in the Russian literature, where the compound has a regulatory history distinct from other jurisdictions. Very little of the primary material has been replicated in Western laboratories, and much of it is not available in English.