blood-brain barrier comes up often in conversation and rarely with the context attached. Here we lay out the basics in order, then work through the practical considerations.
Last reviewed on 2025-12-23. Where a claim depends on a specific study, the study is described rather than over-claimed.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro. It was designed at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a structural analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring tetrapeptide fragment of the immunoglobulin heavy chain. The added Pro-Gly-Pro tail was intended to slow enzymatic degradation and extend biological activity. In Russia it is registered as an anxiolytic nasal preparation, while regulators elsewhere have not approved it for clinical use.
Proposed mechanisms centre on modulation of the GABAergic system, with reports of altered expression of genes related to GABA-A receptor subunits and changed monoamine turnover. Some studies describe inhibition of enkephalinase, the enzyme that degrades endogenous enkephalins, which may prolong opioid peptide signalling. Effects on brain-derived neurotrophic factor and on cytokine expression have also been reported. These findings come largely from animal models and small human studies, and the precise primary target remains unresolved.
Published clinical evidence is limited. Most controlled trials were conducted in Russia, enrolled modest numbers of participants, and appeared in Russian-language journals, which restricts independent verification. Reported outcomes include lower anxiety scores, improved attention and memory measures, and changes in fatigue ratings. Reviews written in English note methodological limitations such as small samples and inconsistent endpoints. Whether the compound produces clinically meaningful benefit relative to established anxiolytics is therefore an open question rather than an established finding.
Selank is a hydrophilic peptide and dissolves readily in water and in aqueous buffers. The lyophilised powder is typically a white to off-white solid. Because short peptides are prone to hydrolysis and oxidation, handling benefits from limiting exposure to heat, moisture and strong light. Working solutions are commonly prepared in sterile water or saline, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles are avoided to reduce aggregation and loss of activity. These practices reflect general laboratory convention rather than published stability specifications.
Dry powder is normally held at -20 degrees Celsius or lower, in a sealed container with desiccant and protection from light. Reconstituted solutions are usually kept at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for short periods and frozen for longer ones. Proline residues at several positions are generally associated with some resistance to peptidase attack, but chemical stability still declines at neutral to alkaline pH and at elevated temperature. Exact shelf-life figures are product-specific and are not standardised across suppliers.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular formula | C33H57N11O9 | Free peptide form |
| Molecular mass | About 751.9 Da | Calculated average mass |
| Amino acid sequence | Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro | Single-letter form TKPRPGP |
| Structural basis | Tuftsin analogue | Extended version of a natural tetrapeptide |
| Development origin | Russian Academy of Sciences | Work carried out from the 1980s onward |
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro. Its four N-terminal residues reproduce tuftsin, a tetrapeptide fragment of the immunoglobulin heavy chain, while the C-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro extension is a synthetic addition. The peptide has a molecular mass near 752 daltons and carries a net positive charge at physiological pH because of the arginine and lysine side chains. Published indexes list it under the name Selank and the sequence abbreviation TKPRPGP. Solid-phase peptide synthesis is the standard production route for research quantities.
Development took place at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where a series of short peptides were designed in the 1980s and 1990s. Selank was selected from variants of tuftsin that showed resistance to plasma peptidases. Russian regulatory approval covers it as an anxiolytic agent given intranasally. Outside that market the compound is normally handled as a research chemical rather than a medicine, and no widely recognised international pharmacopoeial monograph exists. The name Selank is a coined trade designation rather than a systematic chemical name.
Pharmacokinetic data are sparse and largely derived from animal work. After intranasal administration the peptide appears in plasma within minutes, and reported half-lives are short, on the order of minutes to tens of minutes. Degradation proceeds through ordinary proteolytic cleavage into constituent amino acids and smaller fragments. Direct evidence that intact Selank reaches brain tissue in meaningful amounts is limited, and the extent of blood-brain barrier penetration is debated. Some authors argue that fragments, not the parent peptide, carry much of the observed activity.
Published clinical work is concentrated in Russian-language journals and generally involves small samples without independent replication. Systematic reviews in English note the shortage of randomised, placebo-controlled trials and the difficulty of verifying methods from translated reports. Outcome measures vary between studies, which complicates pooling of results. Interest in the compound as a cognitive or anxiolytic agent therefore rests on a thinner evidence base than the volume of citations suggests. Replication in well-powered trials with preregistered endpoints would be needed before firm conclusions about efficacy can be drawn.
Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro. It was designed as a stabilized analogue of tuftsin, a naturally occurring tetrapeptide fragment derived from the immunoglobulin heavy chain. The additional Pro-Gly-Pro segment at the carboxyl terminus is intended to slow enzymatic cleavage. The compound is usually described in the literature as a synthetic peptide with anxiolytic and cognitive-related activity, a label that reflects a research context rather than an approved therapeutic category.
Most published work on selank originates from a small number of research groups in the Russian Federation. A large share of that record appears in Russian-language journals, which limits access for readers who rely on English-indexed databases. Independent replication by laboratories outside the original research network is sparse in publicly available sources. This concentration of origin and language is a frequently noted feature when the compound is summarized in broader reviews of synthetic peptides.
Reported pharmacological effects center on reduced anxiety-like behavior in animal models and on measures of memory and learning. Proposed contributing mechanisms include modulation of GABAergic signaling, shifts in monoamine turnover, and changes in the activity of enzymes that degrade neuropeptides. Effects on the expression of genes linked to neuroplasticity have also been described. No single molecular target is widely accepted, and whether the behavioral findings arise from one pathway or several remains an open question.
In the points where the image is present, the discoloration affects only two or three fibers on the topmost part of the threads of the cloth. In each fiber, the yellow discoloration penetrates only for 200 nm in the external cell layer. A fiber is not necessarily colored for all its length, but, in the parts where it is, it has the property of being colored all around its cylindrical surface. Under the crossing threads of the weave, the image is not present. The discoloration seems caused by a kind of dehydrative oxidation process, which has discolored and chemically altered the surfaces of certain surface fibrils. The image of the Shroud is an areal density image, in the sense that the levels of darkness are not given by variations of the color, which instead is approximately constant all over the image, but by a variation of the number of yellowed fibers per unit area. Therefore, it can be considered a halftone image. Furthermore, there is no difference in terms of distribution of fiber coloration and maximum densities between the front and the rear of the image. While the blood images could have come from a contact mechanism, the body image could not. The mapping between body-only image densities and expected cloth–body distances is not consistent with the image having been formed by direct contact with a body, as it is present even when it does not seem possible for the cloth to be in contact with the body.
==== Adaptation to a single environment ==== Given the slow rate of evolution of the genus, Ginkgo possibly represents a pre-angiosperm strategy for survival in disturbed streamside environments. Ginkgo evolved in an era before flowering plants, when ferns, cycads, and cycadeoids dominated disturbed streamside environments, forming low, open, shrubby canopies. Ginkgo's large seeds and habit of "bolting" – growing to a height of 10 meters before elongating its side branches – may be adaptations to such an environment. Modern-day G. biloba grows best in environments that are well-watered and drained, and the extremely similar fossil Ginkgo favored similar environments: The sediment record at the majority of fossil Ginkgo localities indicates it grew primarily in disturbed environments, such as along streams. Ginkgo, therefore, presents an "ecological paradox" because while it possesses some favorable traits for living in disturbed environments (clonal reproduction) many of its other life-history traits are the opposite of those exhibited by modern plants that thrive in disturbed settings (slow growth, large seed size, late reproductive maturity).
=== Chemical descriptor based === In this approach, descriptors quantifying various electronic, geometric, or steric properties of a molecule are computed and used to develop a QSAR. This approach is different from the fragment (or group contribution) approach in that the descriptors are computed for the system as whole rather than from the properties of individual fragments. This approach is different from the 3D-QSAR approach in that the descriptors are computed from scalar quantities (e.g., energies, geometric parameters) rather than from 3D fields. An example of this approach is the QSARs developed for olefin polymerization by half sandwich compounds.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
== Early life and education == Phil S. Baran was born in Denville, New Jersey, on August 10, 1977, and grew up in Coral Springs, Florida. He was not a strong academic student in high school, but developed early interests in creative pursuits like role-playing games, computer programming, and Lego building. Encouraged by his chemistry teacher to experiment after school, Baran quickly channeled his creativity into crafting molecules. In 1995 he began a chemistry degree at New York University, and enthusiastically accepted David Schuster's offer to work in his lab, synthesizing compounds that linked C60 with porphyrins to make artificial photosynthetic systems. He received his BS in chemistry from New York University in 1997. He went on to earn his PhD from The Scripps Research Institute in 2001, under the supervision of K. C. Nicolaou, an experience he recalls was 'like hardcore Navy Seal training' and where he co-authored 30 papers in less than four years. He then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Elias James Corey at Harvard University who reflected on Baran's time in his lab, saying, "He had a phenomenal grasp of synthetic chemistry," and "felt that he could be a leader in his generation." Baran is married to Mariana Baran and has four children.
==== Metabolism ==== Atomoxetine is primarily metabolized via oxidative metabolism. The three major metabolic pathways include aromatic ring hydroxylation mainly by CYP2D6 but also other cytochrome P450 enzymes into 4-hydroxyatomoxetine, benzylic hydroxylation by an unspecified enzyme into 2-hydroxymethylatomoxetine, and N-demethylation by CYP2C19 into N-desmethylatomoxetine. In addition, N-desmethylatomoxetine undergoes hydroxylation by CYP2D6 into N-desmethyl-4-hydroxyatomoxetine. The hydroxylated metabolites of atomoxetine undergo glucuronidation via UDP-glucuronyltransferase (UGT) enzymes to form glucuronide conjugates. As previously described, first-pass metabolism of atomoxetine is substantially greater, bioavailability is lower, peak levels and total exposure are much greater, and elimination half-life is much longer in CYP2D6 poor metabolizers than in extensive metabolizers. The overall metabolism of atomoxetine is similar regardless of CYP2D6 status. In addition, 4-hydroxyatomoxetine remains the major metabolite of atomoxetine independently of CYP2D6 status. But the quantitative amounts of formed atomoxetine metabolites and their rates of formation are substantially different depending on CYP2D6 status. Studies with radiolabeled atomoxetine have shown that peak levels of radioactivity are essentially the same between CYP2D6 extensive metabolizers and CYP2D6 poor metabolizers. However, total exposure of radioactivity was larger and elimination half-life of radioactivity was longer (62 hours vs.
== January 18, 1982 (Monday) == A simultaneous crash of four T-38 jets killed the four pilots for the Thunderbirds stunt flying team of the U.S. Air Force, as they were flying in formation at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field in Nevada in preparation of a flying show set for March. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Charles R. Ray, an assistant military attache in France, was shot and killed, in front of his home in Paris as he was leaving his apartment to drive to his job at the U.S. Embassy. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a terrorist from Lebanon who had founded the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions, would be arrested almost three years later in Lyon, convicted of complicity in the murder of Lt. Col. Ray and of the March 31 killing of Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov, and would serve 41 years of a life sentence before being released in 2025. Born: Joanna Newsom, American folk singer; in Grass Valley, California Phạm Phương Thảo, Vietnamese folk singer; in Nghi Lộc district, Nghệ An province Died: Juan O'Gorman, 76, Mexican artist and architect, was found dead from an apparent suicide. Frank C. Baxter, 85, American literature professor and television host of the CBS series Shakespeare on TV and the ABC series Telephone Time, winner of seven Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Male Performer (1954), and 1960 for Outstanding Male Personality (1960). Josef Mai, 94, German fighter ace with 30 victories in World War One; Trent Lehman, 20, former American child actor known for Nanny and the Professor, hanged himself.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Inhaled medications can be absorbed quickly and act both locally and systemically. Proper technique with inhaler devices is necessary to achieve the correct dose. Some medications can have an unpleasant taste or irritate the mouth. In general, only 20–50% of the pulmonary-delivered dose rendered in powdery particles will be deposited in the lung upon mouth inhalation. The remainder of 50-70% undeposited aerosolized particles are cleared out of lung as soon as exhalation. An inhaled powdery particle that is >8 μm is structurally predisposed to depositing in the central and conducting airways (conducting zone) by inertial impaction. An inhaled powdery particle that is between 3 and 8 μm in diameter tend to largely deposit in the transitional zones of the lung by sedimentation. An inhaled powdery particle that is <3 μm in diameter is structurally predisposed to depositing primarily in the respiratory regions of the peripheral lung via diffusion. Particles that deposit in the upper and central airways are generally absorbed systemically to great extent because they are only partially removed by mucociliary clearance, which results in orally mediated absorption when the transported mucus is swallowed, and first pass metabolism or incomplete absorption through loss at the fecal route can sometimes reduce the bioavailability.
A more plausible alternative for the evolutionary origins of this system is through constructive neutral evolution, where the order of steps is reversed, with the gratuitous capacity for editing preceding the "defect".
However, the Center does not count itself as and is not perceived to be a think tank in the contemporary sense. During the 1960s, the phrase "think tank" was attached more broadly to meetings of experts, electronic computers, and independent military planning organizations. The prototype and most prominent example of the third category was the RAND Corporation, which was founded in 1946 as an offshoot of Douglas Aircraft and became an independent corporation in 1948. In the 1970s, the phrase became more specifically defined in terms of RAND and others. During the 1980s and 1990s, the phrase evolved again to arrive at its broader contemporary meaning of an independent public policy research institute. For most of the 20th century, such institutes were found primarily in the United States, along with much smaller numbers in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe. Although think tanks had also existed in Japan for some time, they generally lacked independence, having close associations with government ministries or corporations. There has been a veritable proliferation of "think tanks" around the world that began during the 1980s as a result of globalization, the end of the Cold War, and the emergence of transnational problems. Two-thirds of all the think tanks that exist today were established after 1970 and more than half were established since 1980.
Nussio, Enzo; Ugarriza, Juan E. (2021). "Why Rebels Stop Fighting: Organizational Decline and Desertion in Colombia's Insurgency". International Security. 45 (4): 167–203. doi:10.1162/isec_a_00406. hdl:20.500.11850/480000. ISSN 0162-2889. Sherman, John W. "Political Violence in Colombia: Dirty Wars Since 1977." History Compass (Sep 2015) 13#9 pp 454–465. Cirlig, Carmen-Cristina. "Colombia: new momentum for peace?" (PDF). Library Briefing. Library of the European Parliament. Retrieved July 15, 2013. Azcarate, Camilo A. (March 1999). "Psychosocial Dynamics of the Armed Conflict in Colombia". Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution. Archived from the original on January 6, 2003. James Petras (July 2, 1988). "Neglected Dimensions of Violence". Economic and Political Weekly. 23 (27): 1367. JSTOR 4378701. Elizabeth F. Schwartz (Winter 1995–1996). "Getting Away with Murder: Social Cleansing in Colombia and the Role of the United States". The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review. 27 (2): 381–420. John Lindsay-Poland (January–February 2010). "Retreat to Colombia: The Pentagon Adapts Its Latin America Strategy". NACLA Report on the Americas. Government/NGO reports
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
It is a seven-amino-acid peptide, Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro, produced by chemical synthesis rather than extracted from biological tissue. Its design is based on tuftsin, a natural immunomodulatory tetrapeptide. The C-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro segment is a common stabilising motif in short regulatory peptides.
The core four residues correspond to tuftsin, which occurs naturally as part of immunoglobulin G. The full seven-residue sequence, however, is not a known endogenous peptide. It is a laboratory-designed analogue intended to combine tuftsin-like activity with greater resistance to breakdown.
No single receptor has been confirmed as the primary target. Reports describe involvement of the GABAergic system, interference with enkephalin degradation, and shifts in neurotrophic factor expression. Because these observations come from different models and assays, they have not yet been integrated into one accepted mechanism.
Dry powder is normally held at -20 degrees Celsius or below in a sealed, light-protected container with desiccant. Brief room-temperature handling during weighing is generally tolerated. Storage instructions vary between suppliers, so the accompanying certificate of analysis should be followed.