Peptide Evidence Index

Selank

Evidence last reviewed: September 2026

Quick answers

What is it?
Selank is a synthetic seven-amino-acid peptide based on tuftsin, developed in Russia and marketed there as an anti-anxiety nasal spray.
Why are people interested in it?
It's marketed for anxiety, but its registered clinical-trial count on ClinicalTrials.gov is zero, and a naive search only turns up unrelated brain-stimulation studies that share its code name.
What has actually been studied?
Three small Russian studies, totaling well under 200 patients, compared Selank to the benzodiazepine phenazepam or the older anxiolytic medazepam for anxiety disorders — none used a placebo arm or double-blind design. Separate rat and mouse studies have looked at how it works.
How strong is the evidence?
Early human data — small or uncontrolled human studies only, none placebo-controlled or double-blind; animal studies exist but do not establish an effect in humans.
What don't we know yet?
Whether Selank does anything measurable against a real placebo, whether it's truly equivalent to standard anxiety treatment, long-term effects, and what an unregulated vial sold outside Russia actually contains.
Where can I read the original research?
Sources at the bottom of this page: Medvedev et al., 2015, PubMed; Medvedev et al., 2014, PubMed.

Plain-English overview

Selank is a synthetic peptide based on tuftsin, a naturally occurring immune-signaling peptide, developed in Russia and marketed there as an anti-anxiety nasal spray. It is also known by the developmental code name TP-7, which happens to collide with an unrelated abbreviation used for scalp electrode positions in EEG and brain-stimulation research — a detail that matters because a plain-language search of ClinicalTrials.gov for "Selank" surfaces those unrelated studies instead of anything about the peptide. No trial of Selank itself is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov; all of the genuine human evidence comes from three small studies published in Russian psychiatric journals, comparing Selank against an existing benzodiazepine or anxiolytic rather than against a placebo. A separate line of animal research, mostly from Russian pharmacology institutes, has examined how Selank affects GABA receptors, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and stress-related behavior in rats and mice. Selank is described in Russian medical literature as a registered domestic drug used clinically there, but it is not approved as a medicine in the United States, the EU, or the UK.

What researchers are studying it for

Current evidence level

Early human data

Regulatory status: Not an approved medicine. Evidence strength and approval are scored separately; approval is a regulatory decision about a specific use, not a measure of how much research exists.

Human research

Three published human studies were located, all appearing in Russian psychiatric journals: Zozulia et al. (2008, n=62 — 30 patients on Selank, 32 on the older anxiolytic medazepam), Medvedev et al. (2014, n=60, Selank vs. phenazepam), and Medvedev et al. (2015, n=70 across two arms, Selank plus phenazepam vs. phenazepam alone). All three studied Selank for anxiety-spectrum conditions — generalized anxiety disorder, neurasthenia, and phobic-anxiety or somatoform disorders. None compared Selank to a placebo; all three used an active benzodiazepine or anxiolytic comparator instead, either head-to-head or as an add-on, with Selank given intranasally over several weeks. The studies reported anxiety relief similar to or faster than the comparator drug alone, with less of the sedation, memory impairment, and other side effects that benzodiazepines commonly cause, and the 2015 study reported that combined treatment also improved patients' quality-of-life scores. None of the three is described as double-blind. Zero trials of Selank are registered on ClinicalTrials.gov; a plain-text registry search for "Selank" returns two studies, but both are unrelated brain-stimulation trials (including NCT01747200) that matched only on the code name TP-7/TP-8, which in that unconnected research refers to scalp electrode positions used in EEG and transcranial stimulation studies. Combined, the genuine human evidence for Selank totals well under 200 patients, none studied under blinded, placebo-controlled conditions.

Animal and preclinical research

A separate body of Russian animal research has examined how Selank works and what it does in rats and mice, though none of it demonstrates a therapeutic effect in humans. Vyunova et al. (2018) used radioligand-binding experiments in rat brain-membrane preparations to show Selank acts as a positive allosteric modulator of GABA receptors — the same receptor system targeted by benzodiazepines — proposed as a molecular explanation for its anxiolytic effect. Kasian et al. (2017) found that Selank, given alone or combined with diazepam, reduced anxiety-like behavior in rats exposed to unpredictable chronic mild stress, with the combination performing best under stress conditions. Kolik et al. (2019) reported that Selank prevented ethanol-related memory and attention impairment in rats and normalized brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, proposing a BDNF-linked mechanism for its cognitive effects. These are laboratory findings in animals and do not establish that Selank produces the same effects in people.

Major findings

What has not been established

Important limitations

Regulatory status

Selank is described in the Russian medical literature as a registered domestic drug and is used clinically there, marketed as an anti-anxiety nasal spray. It has not been evaluated or approved as a medicine by the FDA, the EMA, or the UK's MHRA.

Primary research sources

Zozulia et al., "Efficacy and possible mechanisms of action of a new peptide anxiolytic selank in the therapy of generalized anxiety disorders and neurasthenia"
Zhurnal Nevrologii i Psikhiatrii, 2008; PMID: 18454096
Medvedev et al., "A comparison of the anxiolytic effect and tolerability of selank and phenazepam in the treatment of anxiety disorders"
Zhurnal Nevrologii i Psikhiatrii, 2014; PMID: 25176261
Medvedev et al., "Optimization of the treatment of anxiety disorders with selank"
Zhurnal Nevrologii i Psikhiatrii, 2015; PMID: 26356395; DOI: 10.17116/jnevro20151156133-40
Vyunova et al., "Peptide-based Anxiolytics: The Molecular Aspects of Heptapeptide Selank Biological Activity" (rat/in vitro mechanism study)
Protein and Peptide Letters, 2018; PMID: 30255741; DOI: 10.2174/0929866525666180925144642
Kasian et al., "Peptide Selank Enhances the Effect of Diazepam in Reducing Anxiety in Unpredictable Chronic Mild Stress Conditions in Rats"
Behavioural Neurology, 2017; PMID: 28280289; DOI: 10.1155/2017/5091027
Kolik et al., "Selank, Peptide Analogue of Tuftsin, Protects Against Ethanol-Induced Memory Impairment by Regulating of BDNF Content in the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex in Rats"
Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2019; PMID: 31625062; DOI: 10.1007/s10517-019-04588-9
Full evidence entry (complete data, registry records, dosing evidence)
Early human data
Small or uncontrolled human studies only

At a glance

Also known as
Selank, TP-7
Class
Synthetic heptapeptide (tuftsin analogue)
Derived from
A synthetic analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring immune-signaling peptide; developed in Russia, also known by the developmental code name TP-7
Registered human trials
0
…with published results
0
Largest human trial
None registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. The largest published human study found is 70 patients across two arms (Medvedev et al., 2015), not blinded or placebo-controlled.
Studied for
anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety disorder / neurasthenia, reducing benzodiazepine side effects
Dosing evidence
No human dose establishedNo placebo-controlled human trial has established an effective Selank dose; the studies that exist compared it to another drug, not to placebo, and did not test multiple doses against each other.
Regulatory status
Described in the Russian medical literature as a registered domestic drug and used clinically there; not approved as a medicine in the United States, the EU, or the UK.

What it is

Selank is a synthetic seven-amino-acid peptide based on tuftsin, a naturally occurring immune-signaling peptide. It was developed in Russia, where it is marketed as an anti-anxiety nasal spray. It is also known by the developmental code name TP-7 — a detail worth knowing, because that code collides with an unrelated abbreviation (electrode positions used in EEG and brain-stimulation research) in completely unconnected studies.

What the studies actually found

Three published human studies were located, all from Russian psychiatric journals, all testing Selank for anxiety disorders — generalized anxiety disorder, neurasthenia, and phobic-anxiety or somatoform disorders. None compared Selank to a placebo. All three compared it to phenazepam, a benzodiazepine tranquilizer already used for these conditions, either head-to-head or as an add-on to it. The studies reported anxiety relief similar to or faster than phenazepam alone, with less of the sedation, memory impairment, and other side effects that come with the benzodiazepine by itself. None of the three describes a double-blind design.

What exists in humans

Zero trials are registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. A plain-text search of the registry for "Selank" returns two studies, but neither is about the peptide — both are unrelated brain-stimulation trials that matched on the code name TP-7/TP-8 (scalp electrode positions used in EEG and transcranial stimulation research), not the drug. All genuine human evidence for Selank is the three small Russian comparative studies described above, totaling well under 200 patients combined.

What doses have been studied in humans

The three Russian studies gave Selank intranasally over several weeks, comparing it to (or combining it with) phenazepam. None used a placebo arm, none is described as double-blind, and none tested more than one Selank dose against another to establish which amount, if any, was necessary for the reported effect.

That means there is no controlled human evidence that any specific amount of Selank does anything beyond what the comparison drug, patient expectation, or the natural course of an anxiety disorder would produce on its own.

What remains unknown

  • Whether Selank does anything measurable against a real placebo
  • Whether it is actually equivalent to standard anxiety treatment, rather than just "compared favorably" in small open studies
  • Long-term effects — none of the studies ran more than a few weeks
  • What an unregulated vial sold outside Russia actually contains

Registry and study records

Optimization of the treatment of anxiety disorders with selank
PubMed · Medvedev et al., 2015. n=70 across two arms (selank+phenazepam vs. phenazepam alone). Not described as double-blind. DOI: 10.17116/jnevro20151156133-40
A comparison of the anxiolytic effect and tolerability of selank and phenazepam in the treatment of anxiety disorders
PubMed · Medvedev et al., 2014. n=60, selank vs. phenazepam (a benzodiazepine). Not placebo-controlled.
Efficacy and possible mechanisms of action of a new peptide anxiolytic selank in the therapy of generalized anxiety disorders and neurasthenia
PubMed · Zozulia et al., 2008. n=62 (30 selank, 32 medazepam). Active-comparator design, not placebo-controlled.
Modulating Behavior in Humans by Entrainment With Rhythmic Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (false-positive match)
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01747200 · Unrelated rTMS study using scalp electrode positions labeled TP7/TP8. Matches a naive 'Selank' search but has nothing to do with the peptide.

Articles on Selank

What clinical trial evidence exists for Semax and Selank, and where doSemax and Selank: What Evidence Exists Outside Russia?
See the full Evidence Index →

Topic hubs

TopicBrain & Cognitive Health

Evidence last reviewed: September 2026. Peptide Proof reports what studies found. We do not give medical advice, dosing guidance, or treatment recommendations.