Reference
Semax vs Selank
Two seven-amino-acid peptides from the same Moscow institute, finished with the same three-amino-acid tail, built from two very different parents.
Semax and Selank are siblings. They were developed at the same institute, they are the same length, and they end the same way. What separates them is where the first four amino acids came from. This page compares the molecules and their history; it makes no claim about what either does.
| Semax | Selank | |
|---|---|---|
| Sequence | Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro |
| Length | 7 amino acids | 7 amino acids |
| Built from | ACTH(4-7), a slice of a stress hormone | Tuftsin, a four-amino-acid immune peptide |
| Shared tail | Pro-Gly-Pro | Pro-Gly-Pro |
| Developed at | Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences | The same institute |
| Registered | Russia, 1994 | Russia, 2009 |
| Approved in EU/US | No | No |
Two parents
Semax starts from ACTH, the pituitary hormone that signals the adrenal glands to release cortisol. Its designers took a four-amino-acid slice, ACTH(4-7), which is too short to carry that hormonal job, and kept it.
Selank starts from tuftsin, a four-amino-acid peptide found in human blood and discovered at Tufts University in Boston in 1970, which is where its name comes from. An American discovery, finished in Moscow.
The same tail, for the same reason
Short peptides like these are broken down within seconds to minutes. Both were given the same three-amino-acid extension, Pro-Gly-Pro, to slow that down. It is the design signature of this Russian school of peptides: take a short, interesting sequence from a larger natural molecule, then alter it so that it survives.
Where they stand
Both are registered medicines in Russia, given there as nasal drops, and neither is approved in the European Union, the United States or New Zealand. Their clinical studies are almost all Russian and have not been repeated in Western trials. A modified form of Semax, Adamax, adds an adamantane group and has no peer-reviewed studies of its own.
Buy in New Zealand
Prices, sizes and stock: Semax in New Zealand · Selank in New Zealand.
