Selank (TP-7)
Selank: What The Studies Actually Say
It is sold as calm without the benzo fog. It is a registered medicine in Russia, but the human trials are small, short and mostly unblinded, nearly all tied to the people who made it, and none tested whether it beats a placebo. Here is what the research actually found.
Updated 22 September 2026
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This page explains what published studies found. That is all it is. It is not medical advice, and it is not instructions for using anything. Nothing here is meant to find, treat, cure or stop any illness. The compounds discussed on this site, retatrutide included, are not approved by the FDA for use in people. Research compounds are sold for laboratory use only — not for use in humans or animals. A study tells you what happened to the people in it. It does not tell you what would happen to you. What you do with what you read here is your responsibility, so talk to a doctor first. This page is published by Ascend Vials, which sells research compounds.
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You have probably heard Selank sold as anxiety relief without the fog of a benzodiazepine.
In the trial with the clearest numbers, it did cause far fewer side effects. It also cut anxiety about half as much. And we found no trial that tested it against a placebo.
Here is what the research actually found. Every claim has a link. Read them yourself.
The 30-second version
- Selank is seven amino acids: a natural peptide called tuftsin, with three more added on. It was developed in Russia.
- It is a registered anti-anxiety medicine in Russia, sold as nasal drops. It is not approved in the US, and the EU's medicines agency has not authorized it.
- The human evidence is small and early: 20 to 70 patients per study, 14 to 30 days, all from Russian groups. We found no trial that tested whether it beats a placebo.
- In the clearest trial, Selank cut anxiety scores 26% in 14 days. The benzodiazepine phenazepam cut them 55%. But nobody on Selank reported drowsiness, against everyone on phenazepam.
- How it works is unproven. "Not addictive" is a label claim that has never been formally tested.
- Nothing sold online has been shown to match what the studies used. No study has checked.
What it is
Selank is a lab-made peptide seven amino acids long: Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro. The first four are tuftsin, a natural peptide. The last three were added on. Pharmacol Rep, 2006 · Source
It was developed at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with Russia's Zakusov Institute of Pharmacology. Front Pharmacol, 2017 You may also see it called TP-7 or Selank acetate. FDA
In Russia it is sold as nasal drops, as an anti-anxiety medicine for adults. Russian label Elsewhere it is sold online as an unapproved "research peptide", as a powder for injection or in nasal sprays. Belgian medicines lab, 2020
The label says it reaches the blood within 30 seconds of a nasal dose. Blood levels fall again within about 5 minutes, because enzymes break it down fast. Russian label
The human studies are small and short
Here is every human study we found with enough detail to describe.
| People | Placebo group? | What it found | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against medazepam, 2008 | 62 | No | Authors report anxiety relief similar to the benzodiazepine |
| Against phenazepam, 2014 | 60 | No, and open-label | About half the anxiety drop at day 14. Far fewer side effects |
| Added to phenazepam, 2015 | 70 | No, and open-label | No significant extra effect at day 14 |
| Fast and slow responders, 2012 | 20 | No comparison group at all | Anxiety scores fell. Conference abstract only |
| Immune signals, 2008 | Not stated | Not described | Immune signals in the blood shifted |
| Tiredness after COVID, 2024 | 64 | No. Other drugs only | "Good effect". No numbers given |
| Healthy adults, brain scans, 2020 | 52 | Yes | Brain links changed. No anxiety or thinking tests |
Read the whole table. Not one of these studies tested Selank against a placebo for anxiety. Most are in Russian, and none had more than 70 people.
Sources: 2008 · 2014 · 2015 · 2012 · immune signals · after COVID · brain scans
The trial with the clearest numbers
In 2014, 60 adults with anxiety disorders were split at random into two groups of 30. One group got Selank nasal drops. The other got phenazepam, a benzodiazepine — the same drug family as Valium and Xanax. Treatment lasted 14 days, with a check a week after stopping. The study was "open": patients and doctors knew who got what. There was no placebo group. Selank's maker and a state research grant paid for it. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr, 2014
On anxiety, phenazepam did about twice as much. At day 14, doctors rated 14 phenazepam patients "markedly improved", against 5 on Selank. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr, 2014
Then both drugs were stopped. A week later, 17 of 30 Selank patients counted as responders, meaning their anxiety score had fallen by at least half. That was up from 5 at day 14. On phenazepam it was 9 of 30. The gap was statistically significant. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr, 2014
So "works as well as a benzodiazepine" is not what this trial found. Selank did about half as much for anxiety while people were taking it. It came out ahead only after both drugs were stopped. Where it clearly won was side effects. More on that below.
Adding it to a benzodiazepine
In 2015 the same team gave 70 adults with anxiety disorders either phenazepam alone (30 people) or phenazepam plus Selank (40). Again it was open, with no placebo, and paid for by the maker and a state grant. At day 14, 40% on the combination were responders, against 23% on phenazepam alone. That gap was too small to rule out chance. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr, 2015
Then phenazepam was stopped for everyone, and 20 combination patients stayed on Selank for one more week. At day 21, 75% of them were responders. That compares with 30% of the phenazepam-only group and 25% of combination patients who stopped everything. Both gaps were statistically significant. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr, 2015
That is not a test of coming off a benzodiazepine slowly with Selank's help. Everyone stopped phenazepam on the same day. We found no trial that tested Selank for tapering off benzodiazepines. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr, 2015
The 2008 trial, and a number that is not in it
A 2008 trial compared Selank with medazepam, another benzodiazepine, for 14 days. It enrolled 62 adults with generalized anxiety or neurasthenia, a diagnosis for nervous exhaustion. The authors report that both drugs eased anxiety about equally. PubMed · Full text
Look closer and it gets thinner. The full text says 42 people got Selank and 20 got medazepam. The PubMed summary says 30 and 32. The paper does not describe how people were put into groups, and it describes no blinding and no placebo. PubMed · Full text
You may have seen this trial quoted as −85% for Selank against −83% for medazepam. That figure is not in the PubMed summary or in the published full text. The full text only says the effects were comparable. PubMed · Full text
The smaller studies
- Fast responders. 20 adults with generalized anxiety all got Selank. In 40% of them, the average score on a standard anxiety scale fell from 20.3 to 7.0 by day 3. It is a conference abstract with no comparison group, so nobody can tell how much of that was the drug. European Psychiatry, 2012
- Healthy adults, brain scans. 52 healthy people got one dose of Selank, Semax (another Russian peptide) or a placebo. The groups differed in the links between the amygdala, a key anxiety region, and part of the temporal lobe. Nobody tested whether anxiety or thinking changed. Dokl Biol Sci, 2020
- Tiredness after COVID. 64 patients got other drugs for 30 days, half with Selank added. The authors report a "good effect" but give no scores or statistics. Vrach, 2024
The rest comes from rats and test tubes
How Selank works has not been shown. Here are the main ideas, and where they come from.
- The body's own opioids. In test tubes of human blood, Selank slowed the enzymes that break down enkephalins, small opioid chemicals the body makes. Bull Exp Biol Med, 2001 · Source But in rat brain tissue, it did not latch onto opioid receptors. Source
- GABA, the benzodiazepine target. GABA is the brain's main "slow down" signal. On brain-cell membranes, Selank boosted GABA binding. Protein Pept Lett, 2018 In rats, one nasal dose changed 29 of 77 measurable nerve-signal genes in the front of the brain within an hour. Front Pharmacol, 2016 But in human nerve cells in a dish, Selank alone changed none of the 84 genes studied. Front Pharmacol, 2017
And in animals:
- In mice, Selank cut anxiety only in a naturally high-anxiety strain. It did nothing in a calmer one. Source · Eksp Klin Farmakol, 2016
- In anxious rats, daily shots cut anxious behavior from day 2 through 4 weeks. Pharmacol Rep, 2006
- In morphine-dependent rats, one shot cut withdrawal signs by 39.6%, against 49.3% for diazepam. Bull Exp Biol Med, 2022 In rats coming off alcohol, one shot removed withdrawal anxiety, but they drank just as much. Bull Exp Biol Med, 2014
So the honest line is this: Selank does many things in rodents and dishes. Almost none of it has been checked inside a person. Two claims you will see go further than the evidence:
- "It boosts BDNF," a protein that helps brain cells grow. There are no human BDNF data. In the rat study we could check, Selank stopped an alcohol-driven rise in BDNF instead of raising it. Bull Exp Biol Med, 2019
- "It protects against the flu." That comes from cells and lab animals. We found no human study. Vopr Virusol, 2009
What to expect
In the 2014 trial, the side-effect gap was huge. Here is day 14.
| Selank | Phenazepam | |
|---|---|---|
| Drowsiness | 0% | 100% |
| Attention problems | 7% | 97% |
| Memory problems | 10% | 83% |
| Sleeping longer | 13% | 93% |
| Sexual problems | 0% | 73% |
The most notable complaint on Selank was a dry nose, in 7% at day 21. Remember that everyone knew which drug they were taking. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr, 2014
In the 2008 trial, only 3 Selank patients had side effects that could be linked to it. On medazepam, 65% did. Nobody showed withdrawal or signs of dependence after the 14 days. Full text
The Russian label lists allergic reactions and a bad taste when drops run down the throat, both of unknown frequency. It bans use in pregnancy, while breastfeeding and under 18, because it was never studied in those groups. Russian label
"Not addictive" is a label claim, not a finding. The label says Selank causes no dependence. Russian label But the human studies lasted 14 to 30 days, and its abuse potential has never been formally tested. A 2021 US review calls Selank "poorly studied", and says drugs like it should be checked for abuse potential first. J Clin Pharmacol, 2021
Warning signs from animals and test tubes:
- Blood pressure. In cats under anesthesia, Selank given into a vein dropped blood pressure by about a third within 1 to 3 minutes. We found no report on what the human nasal dose does. Eksp Klin Farmakol, 2005
- Clotting. In a lab test, Selank slowed blood clotting. Whether that matters for bleeding in people is unknown. Bull Exp Biol Med, 2017
- Other calming drugs. On brain-cell membranes, Selank blocked diazepam's effect on GABA. Protein Pept Lett, 2018 In stressed rats, it made diazepam work better. Behav Neurol, 2017
- Immune reactions. FDA warns that compounded Selank "may pose risk for immunogenicity" for some ways of giving it, meaning the body could react against it. FDA also says it lacks important information on Selank's safety in humans. FDA
Who did the research
Every clinical study on this page comes from Russian groups. Selank's maker, Peptogen, paid for the 2014 and 2015 trials. Co-authors include N.F. Myasoedov of the Institute of Molecular Genetics, where Selank was developed. 2014 · 2015 · 2008
ClinicalTrials.gov, the main public trial registry, listed no Selank trials when we searched on 22 September 2026. ClinicalTrials.gov
None of that makes the results wrong. It means almost nobody outside the group has checked them.
Is it approved?
Selank is a registered medicine in Russia. It is not approved in the US, and the EU's medicines agency has not authorized it.
- Russia: registered since April 2009 and re-registered in December 2023. The license holder is Peptogen, and it is sold without a prescription. Russian drug register The approved form is nasal drops for adults. Russian label
- United States: not FDA-approved. FDA once flagged it as a compounding ingredient with possible significant safety risks. Its page now lists it as "nominated but withdrawn", because the nomination was pulled. Posts saying it is on that risk list today are out of date. FDA A 2021 US review said Selank is "inexplicably" sold to Americans as a dietary supplement. J Clin Pharmacol, 2021
- European Union: the European Medicines Agency's medicines list, as of 22 September 2026, has no Selank entry. EMA
- Everywhere else: we could not verify its status.
What is still unknown
- Whether it beats a placebo in a double-blind trial.
- Whether the results hold up when patients do not know what they are taking, or when a group outside Russia runs the study.
- Safety beyond about 30 days, and the risk of abuse or dependence.
- Whether injecting it is safe. The human trials used nasal drops.
- The right amount. The main anxiety trials used about three times more per day than the current Russian label.
- How it works in people, and whether it helps memory or thinking in healthy people.
- Effects in pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, teenagers and older adults.
What is in the bottle is not what was studied
One more thing.
The anxiety trials on this page used Selank nasal drops, the product registered in Russia. We found no human data at all on Selank injected under the skin, a common way "research peptides" are sold. Belgian medicines lab, 2020
No study has ever shown that a product sold online as "Selank" is the same thing. Not the same purity. Not the same strength. Not even proof it is the same molecule. Belgium's official medicines-control lab found Selank in suspicious seized preparations in 2017 and 2018. Belgian medicines lab, 2020 FDA warns that peptides like this can clump and carry impurities. FDA
So take every number on this page for what it is. It describes what happened in those studies. It describes nothing else.
How to check a number yourself
You are going to see more claims about Selank. In a reel. In a comment. On somebody's store page.
Here is how to tell a real one from a marketing one. Five questions. About ten seconds each.
1. Is the number really in a study?
A real number comes from a paper you can open. No link means it is a claim, not a result. Search "selank" on pubmed.gov yourself.
Then check that the number is really in the paper. The −85% against −83% figure is not. We could not find any source for "more than 800 patients": the trials we could open had 20 to 70 each. And "finished Phase III" traces back to a 2005 report that was never published, so nobody can check it. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr, 2015
2. How big was it, and how long did it run?
Small studies swing. These had 20 to 70 patients and ran 14 to 30 days. Two weeks tells you nothing about two years.
3. Was there a group that got nothing, and did people know what they got?
Without a placebo group, nobody can tell how much of the drop was the drug. No Selank anxiety trial had one. The two best-reported trials were also open, so patients knew what they were taking.
4. Was it people, rats or a dish?
The GABA, BDNF and flu claims come from rats, mice and dishes.
5. Who paid for it?
Here, the maker paid for the 2014 and 2015 trials. Every clinical study came from Russian groups, and the main trial registry lists no Selank trials.
Now run those five on this page
Every number above links to its paper. You were told which trials had no placebo, which were open, which results come from animals, and which popular numbers are not in the paper.
The popular claim is benzodiazepine calm without benzodiazepine side effects. The trial behind it backs only half of that: far fewer side effects, but about half the anxiety drop.
That is the whole difference: a number you can check, and a number you are asked to believe.
This page has a date on it, near the top. If a placebo-controlled trial of Selank is ever published, this page changes.
Read the studies yourself
- Against phenazepam, 2014 — the main one, in Russian
- Added to phenazepam, 2015 — also where the unpublished "Phase III" report is cited
- Against medazepam, 2008: PubMed · shortened full text, hosted by the maker
- Fast and slow responders, European Psychiatry 2012 — conference abstract
- Immune signals, 2008 · Brain scans in healthy adults, 2020 · Tiredness after COVID, 2024
- Label and status: Russian label · Russian drug register · FDA compounding safety-risk page · EMA medicines list · ClinicalTrials.gov search
- US review, J Clin Pharmacol 2021 · Selank in suspicious preparations, Belgium
- Where it comes from: Pharmacol Rep, 2006 · structure, 2009 · Front Pharmacol, 2017 — free to read
- How it might work: enkephalins in plasma, 2001 · enkephalins in serum · opioid receptors · GABA binding, 2018 · rat brain genes, 2016 — free to read
- Animals: mouse strains · mouse strains, 2016 · stressed rats and diazepam, 2017 — free to read · morphine withdrawal, 2022 · alcohol withdrawal, 2014 · alcohol and BDNF, 2019 · flu, 2009
- Safety signals: blood pressure in cats, 2005 · clotting, 2017
Anything above about amounts describes what a study gave to animals or enrolled patients. This is not advice, a plan, or instructions. Selank is not an approved medicine in the United States. Research compounds are not for human or animal use.