Selank: evidence, dosing, safety & interactions
Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro (a synthetic heptapeptide analog of tuftsin)
This is a lab-made substance related to a natural immune peptide, approved as an anti-anxiety nasal spray in Russia. Outside Russia, it's sold as an unregulated research chemical, so quality and safety aren't guaranteed.
- What it is
- A synthetic tuftsin-derived heptapeptide, approved and sold in Russia as a prescription anxiolytic nasal spray — not approved as a medicine anywhere in the US or EU.
- Evidence
- Russian trials report anxiolytic effects roughly comparable to benzodiazepines, mostly in benzodiazepine-controlled (not placebo-controlled) designs, from one overlapping research network.
- Studied dose
- Human trial abstracts do not report a precise studied dose in micrograms; the Russian-marketed nasal spray is dosed by drops, and no independently validated dosing schedule exists outside that product.
- Safety
- Described as well tolerated in Russian trials, with fewer benzodiazepine-type side effects when combined with one. A 2021 US review flagged its abuse-potential as unstudied.
What human trials actually show
Randomized, placebo-controlled human trials only. Animal data never appears in this section — it cannot raise a grade, and it is noted separately below.
- 01Zhurnal nevrologii i psikhiatrii imeni S.S. Korsakova2015— Anxiety disorder treatment, add-on to a benzodiazepine
- Design
- Comparative trial: benzodiazepine (phenazepam) monotherapy vs. Selank + phenazepam
- Dose
- Selank added to standard phenazepam dosing; exact Selank dose not reported in the abstract
- Duration
- Not specified beyond the treatment course and post-withdrawal follow-up
70 patients with anxiety-phobic, hypochondriac, and somatoform disorders (ICD-10)
The Selank + phenazepam group reached a positive response on the Hamilton Depression/Anxiety scale earlier than phenazepam alone, and had significantly fewer benzodiazepine side effects (attention and memory impairment, sedation, sexual disturbance, orthostatism) both during treatment and after the benzodiazepine was withdrawn.
doi:10.17116/jnevro20151156133-40 - 02Journal of Clinical Pharmacology2021— Regulatory and abuse-potential status of GABAergic sedative-hypnotics
- Design
- Narrative clinical pharmacology review
- Dose
- n/a
- Duration
- n/a
n/a — literature review
Named Selank (alongside phenibut) as a 'poorly studied Russian drug with GABAergic mechanisms that is inexplicably sold to US consumers as a dietary supplement,' and called for significant evaluation of abuse potential before continued public access, given rising poison-control-center concern about related Russian GABAergic compounds.
doi:10.1002/jcph.1922 - 03Doklady Biological Sciences2020— Brain functional connectivity (fMRI)
- Design
- Placebo-controlled, resting-state fMRI before and after dosing
- Dose
- Single dose, compared against Semax and placebo
- Duration
- Scanned before, and 5 and 20 minutes after administration
52 healthy participants
Selank produced measurable, placebo-distinguishable changes in resting-state connectivity between the amygdala and temporal cortex regions involved in anxiety regulation — a real acute brain effect in healthy volunteers, though not a clinical anxiety outcome.
doi:10.1134/S001249662001007X
The pivotal human anxiety trials compare Selank against an active benzodiazepine, not placebo, which can show relative tolerability but cannot prove Selank works better than doing nothing. Every trial we could verify traces back to the same small Moscow research network involved in developing the compound, and none has been replicated by an independent lab, in Russia or elsewhere. The proposed mechanism — inhibition of enkephalin-degrading enzymes — rests mainly on animal and in vitro work; a 2017 cell-culture study found Selank had no direct effect on GABA-receptor gene expression by itself, complicating the 'GABAergic' framing used to market it. No study has examined long-term use, dependence, or withdrawal in humans, despite its mechanistic overlap with a drug class known for exactly those risks — a gap a 2021 US pharmacology review explicitly flagged.
Grade C — early. Several Russian trials, some RCT-labeled, report anxiolytic effects in a few hundred patients combined — comparable in size and effect to benzodiazepine comparators. But nearly every trial comes from the same Moscow-based research network (Mental Health Research Center / Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences) that developed the compound, most compare Selank against an active benzodiazepine rather than placebo — which cannot establish absolute efficacy — and none has been independently replicated outside Russia. A 2021 US clinical pharmacology review named Selank specifically as a 'poorly studied' GABAergic drug being sold to American consumers without adequate abuse-potential evaluation. How we grade evidence.
Side effects & safety
- Reported in Russian trials
- Generally described as well tolerated. In combination trials, adding Selank to a benzodiazepine was associated with fewer benzodiazepine-type side effects (sedation, memory impairment) than the benzodiazepine alone.
- Regulatory concern
- A 2021 US clinical pharmacology review grouped Selank with phenibut — another Russian GABAergic peptide/drug with documented US poison-control-center calls — and flagged both as insufficiently evaluated for abuse and dependence potential before being sold to US consumers.
- The honest caveat
- "Well tolerated" here reflects assessment inside Russian trials that were not placebo-controlled and not reviewed by a Western pharmacovigilance system. It is not the same claim as an FDA- or EMA-reviewed safety profile.
Interactions with medications
The section most longevity sites skip. If you take prescription medication, read this before anything else on the page.
Studied specifically in combination in Russian trials, where Selank was reported to reduce benzodiazepine side effects without apparently worsening sedation. This is real but Russian-only, non-independently-replicated data — not a general safety clearance for combining the two.
A 2021 US clinical pharmacology review grouped Selank with other under-studied GABA-modulating drugs of abuse and explicitly called for more evaluation before public access — treat combinations with any other sedative as unstudied and higher-risk.
Outside the benzodiazepine combination trials, no human drug-interaction data exists at all.
Is Selank legal where you live?
Regulatory status is tracked per market and reviewed on the date shown. Where a compound is not authorised, this site does not link to sellers.
Selank is approved and sold as a prescription anxiolytic nasal spray in Russia, but that has no legal standing in the United States. The FDA has not reviewed Selank, and a 2021 US clinical pharmacology review specifically criticized its sale here as an unregulated dietary supplement.
Source: US Food and Drug Administration
No UK marketing authorisation as a medicine, and no permitted route to sell it as a food supplement. Its Russian prescription status has no standing under UK law.
Source: MHRA
No EU marketing authorisation and no novel-food authorisation. The EMA has not reviewed Selank, and its Russian approval does not extend to the EU.
Source: European Medicines Agency
Germany applies the EU position: no authorised medicinal product and no permitted supplement use, regardless of Russian prescription status.
Source: BfArM / European Medicines Agency
Aucune autorisation de mise sur le marché dans l'UE et aucun statut de nouvel aliment. Le statut de médicament sur ordonnance en Russie n'a aucune valeur juridique en France.
Source: European Commission / ANSM
Sin autorización de comercialización en la UE ni condición de nuevo alimento. Su estatus de medicamento con receta en Rusia no tiene validez legal en España.
Source: Comisión Europea / AEMPS
Dosing & timing
The retrieved trial abstracts describe Selank being administered intranasally (and in one trial, both intranasally and orally) but do not state an exact microgram dose — a genuine reporting gap in the published literature, not something we are omitting.
From a rodent behavioral study; this is not a human dose and should not be scaled directly to a person.
The approved Russian formulation is a nasal spray. No independently validated dosing schedule exists for any other route sold online.
Questions people actually ask
Is Selank legal in the United States?
It is not an approved drug and is not a lawful dietary supplement ingredient in the US, despite being sold as one online. A 2021 clinical pharmacology review in a US journal specifically criticized this, calling Selank a poorly studied Russian drug 'inexplicably sold to US consumers as dietary supplements.'
What does the human evidence actually show?
Real Russian trials, mostly comparing Selank added to or against a benzodiazepine, report anxiolytic effects with fewer benzodiazepine side effects in combination. That's genuine published data — but it comes from one research network, largely lacks a placebo arm, and has never been independently replicated.
Why is Selank approved in Russia but not in the US or EU?
Russia's regulator accepted its own domestic trial programme as sufficient. The FDA and EMA require independently verified, typically placebo-controlled evidence and have not reviewed Selank at all — its Russian prescription status does not transfer to Western markets.
Is Selank addictive like a benzodiazepine?
Nobody knows. Selank shares a proposed GABAergic mechanism with benzodiazepines, and a 2021 US pharmacology review flagged its abuse and dependence potential as unstudied. Absence of reported dependence in short Russian trials is not the same as a demonstrated absence of risk.
Is Selank the same as Semax?
No. They were developed at overlapping Russian institutes and have even been tested side by side in one placebo-controlled brain-imaging study, but they are structurally different peptides marketed for different uses — Selank for anxiety, Semax for cognitive/neurological effects.