Selank
Synthetic tuftsin analogue · No UK brand. Approved as a medicine in Russia
- UK status
- Unlicensed in the UK
- Availability
- Research use only
- Evidence base
- Russian clinical use, limited Western trial data
- Controlled drug
- No
Sequence
A heptapeptide analogue of tuftsin, an immune-active peptide fragment.
The short version
What it does
Sold for anxiety and stress, and often paired with Semax for focus. In Russia it is a licensed anxiety medicine.
How it does it
Based on a small fragment of an immune protein. It appears to affect the brain's main calming chemical system, the one benzodiazepines act on, but without the sedation and without the dependence they cause.
The catch
Decades of Russian clinical use, and none of the controlled trial evidence Western regulators require. If you are treating anxiety, there are UK treatments with real evidence and someone accountable.
Everything below goes into the detail, with sources.
Selank is Semax's companion, from the same Moscow institute, and it raises the same awkward question. It is a licensed medicine in Russia with decades of use behind it, and the evidence Western regulators want does not exist.
At a glance
- Compound type
- Peptide, 7 amino acids
- Based on
- Tuftsin, a naturally occurring immune peptide fragment
- Drug class
- Anxiolytic peptide
- Route
- Usually nasal spray
- Approved in
- Russia
- Russian indication
- Anxiety disorders
- UK, EU and US status
- No authorisation in any of them
- Usually paired with
- Semax, from the same research institute
- In sport
- Check the current WADA Prohibited List and UKAD.
01What it is
Tuftsin is a short fragment of an antibody molecule with immune-signalling activity. Selank is a synthetic analogue of it, extended to make it stable, developed as an anxiolytic.
Its interest lies in what it is claimed not to do. Benzodiazepines relieve anxiety effectively and cause sedation, tolerance and dependence. Selank is described as producing anxiolytic effects without those, which would be genuinely valuable if established.
02How it came about
Selank was developed at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow, the same institute that produced Semax, and has been used clinically in Russia for anxiety disorders. It is usually administered as a nasal spray.
It has never been approved in the UK, the EU or the US, and it has not been through a Western regulatory assessment.
03UK legal and licensing status
No MHRA marketing authorisation, and no EMA or FDA approval. Supplying it for human use in the UK without authorisation is prohibited. It is not a controlled drug.
Russian approval is real approval under a real system. Regulators differ in the trial evidence they require, and the MHRA has not assessed this compound. There is no UK SPC, no approved patient information and no Yellow Card coverage.
04How it works
Reported mechanisms include effects on the GABA system, the brain's principal inhibitory signalling system and the one benzodiazepines act on, along with effects on serotonin metabolism and on BDNF. It is also described as having immune-modulating activity, unsurprisingly given its tuftsin origin.
The claim that it engages the GABA system without producing sedation or dependence is the interesting part and the part that would need proper trials to establish.
05What it is not
Claims that attach themselves to this compound and do not hold up.
- Not licensed in the UK, the EU or the US.
- Not a substitute for treating anxiety properly. The UK has psychological therapies and licensed medicines with real evidence, available through your GP.
- Not established as free of dependence. That is the claim made for it, and claims are not findings.
- Not the same as Semax. Related origin, different compound, different intended effect.
06What the evidence shows
There is a Russian-language clinical literature and decades of prescribing, including comparisons against benzodiazepines. That is more real-world use than most compounds here.
Western regulators want randomised, controlled, adequately powered trials with pre-registered outcomes. Much of the Russian literature predates or does not follow those conventions. Long clinical use tells you a drug has not obviously harmed large numbers of people. It does not establish effect size, and for anxiety, where placebo response is famously large, controls matter more than almost anywhere.
There is a fair critique that Eastern European evidence gets discounted unfairly. It deserves engaging with. It also does not create the controlled data that does not exist.
Effect size against placebo in properly controlled trials. Long-term safety outside supervised Russian practice. Whether the absence of dependence holds up under scrutiny.
07Reported harms
Russian clinical reporting describes a favourable profile, and it is prescribed for anxiety, which implies tolerability. Without a UK or US licence there is no authoritative frequency table and no Yellow Card route.
Nasal administration of an unregulated product carries its own contamination concerns, and absorbed dose by that route is unpredictable.
08Interactions and cautions
No Western interaction dataset. Reported effects on GABA and serotonin systems mean anyone taking antidepressants, benzodiazepines, or other psychiatric medication is combining things acting on overlapping systems with no guidance whatsoever. That is the interaction question that matters most here.
09Stopping
No withdrawal syndrome is described in the available literature, which is part of its claimed advantage over benzodiazepines and is not the same as established.
10Monitoring
In Russian practice, a clinician oversees treatment. Bought online for self-treated anxiety, nobody is overseeing anything, and anxiety is a condition where that matters more than most.
11Questions worth asking
Take these to a doctor or pharmacist. A good clinician will not mind being asked, and the answers are specific to you in a way nothing on this page can be.
- Have I actually spoken to anyone about the anxiety, rather than treating it myself?
- Am I taking anything that affects serotonin or GABA?
- Do I know that talking therapies have strong evidence for anxiety and are available on the NHS?
12Common questions
Is Selank approved anywhere?
Yes, in Russia, where it is a licensed medicine for anxiety disorders. It has no MHRA, EMA or FDA approval.
Is it like a benzodiazepine?
It is claimed to produce anxiolytic effects through the same GABA system without the sedation, tolerance or dependence benzodiazepines cause. That is the claim, and it has not been established in the trials Western regulators require.
Is it the same as Semax?
No. Both came from the same Moscow institute and both are usually nasal sprays, and they are different compounds with different intended effects. Semax is aimed at cognition and stroke recovery, Selank at anxiety.
What actually works for anxiety in the UK?
Cognitive behavioural therapy has strong evidence and is available through the NHS, including self-referral in England. There are also licensed medicines. Both come with someone accountable for your care, which an online peptide does not.
13Sources
Links go to the authoritative source. Where a document sits behind a paywall or moves around, the full citation is given so you can find it yourself.
- Selank clinical literaturePubMed
- Semax record/compounds/semax/
- Anxiety guidanceNICE
- Unlicensed medicines guidanceMHRA
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