Peptide Graded

Selank

Does Selank work?

Partly: one small Russian trial of 62 patients with no placebo group, never repeated.

BSome human evidenceNot approvedas of 2026-10-26

There is one small controlled comparison in 62 patients with generalized anxiety disorder or neurasthenia, published in Russian without a placebo arm, plus a cytokine study in a subset of patients and two animal or in vitro studies on GABA and NMDA receptor binding. One controlled human trial meets the letter of B, but it is tiny, the abstract reports neither randomization nor blinding, and it has never been replicated outside Russia. 13579

The main clinical study compared two drugs in 62 patients with generalized anxiety disorder or neurasthenia. Thirty patients got selank. The other 32 got medazepam, which is a benzodiazepine. Anxiety ratings on the Hamilton and Zung scales fell about equally in both groups. The authors reported that selank also reduced fatigue and improved alertness. Medazepam did not. There was no placebo group. The abstract does not describe randomization or blinding. So the trial cannot tell a drug effect from expectation. It was published in Russian in 2008. 5

A companion study measured cytokines. These are immune signals. It looked at patients from the same program who took selank for two weeks. It also looked at blood cells exposed to selank in the lab. The authors reported shifts in interleukin-6. They also saw shifts in the balance between types of helper T cells. They proposed that selank changes how the immune system acts. No controlled study has tested this. 7

Evidence checklist

  • Randomised controlled trial One randomized trial, no placebo group
  • Human study over 100 people 62 patients in the only trial
  • More than one research group Russian group only, not replicated
  • Clinical outcomes, not surrogate markers Anxiety scale scores only
  • Human safety data beyond case reports A few dozen patients for a few weeks

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More on Selank

Citations

  1. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr 2015: Russian clinical study of selank in anxiety disorders doi.org
  2. Drug Test Anal 2019: analytical and pharmacological review of semax and selank doi.org
  3. Cell Mol Neurobiol 2009: effects of regulatory peptides on BDNF and NGF expression in rat brain doi.org
  4. STAT, July 2026: FDA peptide compounding panel outcomes statnews.com
  5. Zozulia 2008, Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr: efficacy of selank versus medazepam in generalized anxiety disorder and neurasthenia pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  6. FDA: certain bulk drug substances for use in compounding may present significant safety risks fda.gov
  7. Uchakina 2008, Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr: immunomodulatory effects of selank in anxiety-asthenic disorders pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  8. Volkova 2016, Front Pharmacol: selank and expression of genes involved in GABAergic neurotransmission doi.org
  9. Kolik 2016, Eksp Klin Farmakol: nasal versus intraperitoneal selank in two mouse strains pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  10. FDA: interim 503A bulk drug substances category list fda.gov
  11. FDA: July 23-24, 2026 Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee meeting fda.gov

Reference information only, not medical advice. Drawn from the Selank article, fact-checked against the cited sources. No dosing anywhere on this site.