The Russian anxiolytic peptide used for stress, anxiety, and cognitive support — non-sedating, non-addictive, and active within 30 minutes of an intranasal dose.
Selank is a synthetic 7 amino acid peptide developed at the Russian Academy of Sciences in the 1990s as a non-sedating alternative to benzodiazepines. It’s derived from the immunomodulatory peptide tuftsin, which is why it also has mild immune-supportive effects.
In Russia it’s approved for generalized anxiety disorder. Unlike benzodiazepines, Selank does not produce sedation, cognitive dulling, tolerance, or dependence — and it can actually improve focus and working memory at typical doses.
Not FDA approved. Not WADA prohibited. Available as a research chemical; nasal spray formulations are common.
Modulates GABA-A receptor function and balances serotonergic tone — producing anxiolysis without direct receptor agonism. This is why it doesn’t cause sedation or dependence.
Elevates brain-derived neurotrophic factor, supporting neuroplasticity and cognitive resilience — similar mechanism to exercise and antidepressants.
Extends the activity of endogenous enkephalins by inhibiting their breakdown. Contributes to mood elevation and stress resilience.
Shares tuftsin-derived immune effects — mild antiviral and immune-supportive properties alongside the primary anxiolytic action.
| Benefit | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Anxiety reduction | Zozulya 2008 (PMID 18454096): 62 patients with GAD or neurasthenia, 30 on Selank vs 32 on medazepam. Anxiolytic effect comparable, and Selank additionally produced antiasthenic and psychostimulant effects. Note it was compared against an active drug, not placebo |
| Focus & working memory | Improvements on attention and short-term memory tasks, particularly under stress |
| Stress resilience | Reduced cortisol response to acute stressors in animal studies |
| No tolerance / dependence | No withdrawal or rebound anxiety on discontinuation; suitable for intermittent use |
| Immune support | Mild antiviral and immune-modulating activity via tuftsin fragment |
Most human data comes from Russian publications; Western independent replication is limited.
Build your protocol, log every dose, monitor your body's response, and get reminders so you never miss a dose.
Start Tracking FreeSelank has more human clinical data than most peptides in this category. It also has an unusual limitation: nearly all of it is Russian, much of it published in Russian-language journals, and independent Western replication is thin. Both halves of that matter.
62 patients with generalized anxiety disorder or neurasthenia; 30 received Selank and 32 received medazepam, a benzodiazepine. Anxiolytic effect was comparable between the two, and Selank additionally showed antiasthenic and psychostimulant effects the benzodiazepine did not.
The mechanistic finding embedded in it is the more interesting part: patients had a shortened leu-enkephalin half-life that correlated with illness duration, anxiety and asthenia severity, and autonomic symptoms — and that parameter rose during Selank treatment. A biomarker moving in the direction the mechanism predicts is rarer than it should be in this field.
Read the design honestly. This was an active-comparator study. There is no placebo arm here, so it supports "comparable to a benzodiazepine" rather than "beats placebo."
52 healthy participants underwent resting-state fMRI three times — before, and 5 and 20 minutes after injection of Selank, Semax or placebo. Both peptides changed functional connectivity between the right amygdala (a central node for anxiety regulation) and a right-hemisphere temporal region spanning fusiform, inferior and middle temporal and parahippocampal gyri, with effects partly shared and partly specific to each compound.
This is the closest thing to placebo-controlled objective evidence that Selank does something measurable in a human brain, and it is worth more than a stack of symptom questionnaires.
Vasil'eva 2016 (PMID 29787664) gave Selank at 300 mcg/kg/day for five days to two mouse strains. The anxiolytic and nootropic effects appeared only in BALB/c mice — the strain with high baseline anxiety and reduced exploratory activity — and not in the calmer C57BL/6 strain at all.
If that carries over, Selank corrects a deficit rather than adding a capability, and someone without meaningful baseline anxiety may notice little. It also found the route changes the neurochemistry: intraperitoneal dosing raised GABA-receptor binding in frontal cortex by 38% without touching NMDA receptors, while intranasal raised NMDA-receptor binding by 23% without touching GABA. Same peptide, two different profiles.
Medvedev 2014 (PMID 25176261) compared Selank with phenazepam and found anxiolytic effect with mild nootropic activity persisting roughly a week after the last dose. Medvedev 2015 (PMID 26356395) found adding Selank to phenazepam reduced the benzodiazepine's attention and memory impairment, sedation and emotional blunting, both during treatment and after withdrawal. Note that this was supervised clinical use — it is not a licence to self-combine GABAergic drugs.
Not medical advice. These figures describe what is reported in the literature and what practitioners and communities do — not a recommendation, and for most compounds here no human dose-finding study exists. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider.
The Russian clinical protocol for the approved 0.15% nasal spray is 2–3 drops per nostril, three times daily, for 10–14 days. Animal work used 300 mcg/kg/day (PMID 29787664) and 0.3 mg/kg/day (PMID 31625062).
One caution on a figure you will see repeated: the widely quoted 2,700 mcg/day protocol, and the "40% respond within 1–3 days" split that travels with it, come from a conference abstract rather than a peer-reviewed indexed paper — it does not appear in PubMed. Treat it as weaker than the trials above, not stronger.
No dose-finding study exists for the subcutaneous protocols below.
SubQ is less common; most users prefer intranasal for convenience and rapid onset.
Can be used as-needed for acute stress/anxiety or as a 10–14 day cycle followed by a break. No tolerance has been reported. Worth knowing: PMID 25176261 shows Selank’s anxiolytic effect can persist for up to a week after the last dose, which has implications for how often you actually need to re-dose — a “brief course” may cover more days than it looks like on paper.
Pre-filled with a typical Selank setup. Edit any field — the draw updates live.
Insulin syringe — 100 units = 1 mL
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Not medical advice. These figures describe what is reported in the literature and what practitioners and communities do — not a recommendation, and for most compounds here no human dose-finding study exists. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider.
For DIY nasal spray preparation from lyophilized powder:
5 mg vial + 5 mL BAC water = 1 mg/mL. Typical nasal pump delivers ~100 µL (0.1 mL) per spray = 100 mcg per spray.
For a 250 mcg dose: 2–3 sprays (split between nostrils). For 500 mcg: 5 sprays.
Three things get sold under this name and the difference is stability, not pharmacology.
The modifications are intended to slow degradation, not to change what the molecule does at the receptor. The honest position: no human clinical data exists for either modified form. Choosing one trades a documented evidence base for a theoretical stability advantage, and vendors rarely put it that way.
Worth knowing either way: Selank's plasma residence is measured in minutes, yet the downstream effects on gene expression, BDNF and neurotransmitter balance outlast it by hours to days. Short plasma half-life is not the objection to Selank that it is for, say, MGF.
Selank has one of the cleanest safety profiles of any anxiolytic — decades of clinical use in Russia with minimal adverse events.
Selank is sold for research use only. If you are sourcing it for research, we recommend Lyvn — every batch third-party tested with the full laboratory panel published on the product page.
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For research use only. Not for human consumption. 21+.
Build your protocol, log every dose, monitor your body's response, and get reminders so you never miss a dose.
Start Tracking FreeNo. Selank is a Russian-developed synthetic heptapeptide that has never been approved by the FDA, EMA, or any Western regulatory authority. It has Russian Ministry of Health approval for use in generalized anxiety disorder and neurasthenia. In the US it is sold only as a research chemical.
Russian clinical protocols use intranasal 0.15% spray, 250–500 mcg per dose, 1–3 times daily (total 500 mcg–2 mg/day) for 10–14 day courses. Western community usage closely mirrors this. Subcutaneous administration is less common and has no clinical-evidence base.
The vast majority of Selank use is intranasal. Many users reconstitute lyophilized vials with bacteriostatic water and load into a nasal spray bottle. A 5 mg vial + 2 mL BAC water yields 2.5 mg/mL — at 100 mcL per spray, that delivers 250 mcg per spray. Russian-clinic protocols use a 0.15% solution (1.5 mg/mL).
Onset of subjective anxiolytic effect is reported within 15–30 minutes intranasally. The Medvedev 2014 (PMID 25176261) Russian RCT reported anxiolytic effects "lasting for a week after the last dose" of a 14-day course — but this single small Russian trial is striking, unreplicated, and in tension with Selank’s ~minute-scale plasma half-life. Treat that "one-week persistence" as a single finding, not established pharmacology.
Both are short Russian Pro-Gly-Pro–stabilized peptides with overlapping cognitive/anxiolytic profiles. Community users often stack them — Selank for the anxiolytic/calming angle and Semax for the stimulant/focus angle. There are no controlled trials of the combination. Doses, frequencies, and cycles are all community convention.
Not specifically named on the WADA Prohibited List as of 2025–2026. WADA reserves discretion to sweep peptides under broad class language (S0 — Non-Approved Substances). Competitive athletes should verify the current-year list before use.
Disclaimer: This guide is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The compounds discussed are not FDA approved for human use. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before starting any new supplement or peptide protocol. StackTrax does not sell peptides or supplements directly — purchase links go to third-party vendors. StackTrax is not responsible for the products, quality, or business practices of any third-party vendor.
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StackTrax guides cover peptides and compounds that are not FDA-approved for the uses discussed. The dosing, reconstitution, and safety information is compiled from published research and community protocols for educational purposes only.
Before using any compound mentioned here, consult a qualified healthcare provider. StackTrax does not sell, prescribe, or recommend these substances for personal use.