Nootropic Peptides and Anxiety: What Is Selank?
A Russian peptide with anxiolytic benefits
Last month, I wrote about how nootropics might prove a likelier entry point for Ozempic-averse millennials into the peptide world. The reason? Anxiety.
Much has been made of the post-recession spike in anxiety among the younger cohorts of the American population, but little has been done to address it on the structural level. After getting laid off from work (provided one has found work at all), receiving a $1,200 COVID federal relief check, consuming inordinate amounts of fear and pathos-stoking online content, and missing the various adult life milestones that one’s parents seemed to meet with ease in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Americans between the ages of 25 and 45 (i.e. millennials and Gen Z) could hardly blamed for feeling panicked and overwhelmed.
More than any aesthetic or ideological trend, progressive millennial and Gen Z interests tend to be organized around resource scarcity. (If you want proof, just look at the election of 34-year-old New York mayor Zohran Mamdani.) While “looksmaxxing” is experiencing a strange spike in popularity among the terminally online and facelifts and tummy tucks continue to be marketed to younger and younger women, choosing to radically alter one’s appearance – whether it be through surgical interventions or injecting GLP-1s – is still a far more niche experience than having a panic attack. At least if you’re under 50.
Two weeks ago, we learned about a nootropic Russian peptide called Semax. As a compound, Semax really recommends itself for focus, cognitive function, and neurotrophy (brain growth and repair). When it comes to overall mental function, Semax is certainly an amino chain worth keeping one’s eye on.
But when it comes to anxiety, Selank is the nootropic Russian peptide of choice. While both peptides were synthesized with the broader scientific goal of enhancing neurological function, it’s Selank that enhances the activity of the brain’s all-too-important GABA-producing neurons. The very same ones that modulate our nervous system’s fear response.
What Is Selank?
Selank is a heptapeptide – that is, an amino acid chain composed of seven amino acids – synthesized from tuftsin, which is an immunopotentiating peptide that occurs naturally in the human body. Tuftsin has the positive effect of stimulating immune system activities that combat bacterial infection and tumor growth.
Longer than tetrapeptide tuftsin by three amino acids, Selank has the more specific function of initiating a GABA-ergic cascade in the brain.
Before I can begin to explain what I mean by “GABA-ergic cascade,” it’s worth knowing a bit about how GABA functions in our brains, and how Selank is designed to facilitate its production.
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Selank’s Origins and Design
Like its nootropic coeval Semax, Selank was developed in a Russian lab at the tail end of the Cold War. Unlike Semax, which was developed for cognitive enhancement and to treat the effects of ischemic stroke, Selank was developed specifically to mitigate the effects of stress on the brain and nervous system.
When Russian biochemist Igor Ashmarin set out to test the effects of regulatory peptide Selank, he actually had anxiety in mind.
Selank is composed of the following seven amino acids:
Threonine (Thr)
Lysine (Lys)
Proline (Pro)
Arginine (Arg)
Proline (Pro)
Glycine (Gly)
Proline (Pro)
The first four amino acids (Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg) are the components of tetrapeptide tuftsin. To synthesize Selank, researchers attached a PGP chain (Pro-Gly-Pro) to tuftsin, resulting in a version of tuftsin much less susceptible to enzymatic degradation. Like Semax, which also has a PGP tail, Selank is able to perform its biological functions at great length – much longer than tuftsin, which is broken down rapidly in the body. This is what enables Selank to have the therapeutic effect on the nervous system that it does.
Selank: the Anxiolytic Peptide
Now, back to how Selank functions on the nervous system.
Selank is GABA-ergic, which in this case means GABA-enhancing. GABA stands for gamma-aminobutyric acid, and it’s an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human central nervous system. “Inhibitory” here is the converse of “excitatory,” so you can probably guess the effect gamma-aminobutyric acid has on an amped-up nervous system.
GABA is the factor that curbs the overactivity of the ruminating amygdala. The more GABA flowing through your brain, the less likely you are to be hypervigilant, compulsive, scanning your environment for danger. You are less likely to experience elevated levels of cortisol (long-term cortisol exposure can be detrimental to new memory formation and critical thinking) and less likely to engage in ruminative thinking.
Benzodiazepines — most popularly known as psychotropic medications like Xanax and Klonopin — are also GABA-ergic, but they go about boosting GABA by binding to the GABA-A receptor in GABA-producing neurons. This has the effect of “turning the volume up” on GABA production through something like blunt force. Hence the sedative effect of benzodiazepine medications, and their risk of dependency.
When it comes to calming the nervous system, Selank employs a lighter touch. Instead of binding directly to receptors, it:
Enhances the expression of genes involved in GABAergic neurotransmission. (Key study: Volkova et al. 2016)
Enhances the effects of endogenous GABA. (Key studies from Neurochemical Journal, 22 November 2014)
Normalizes anxiety-provoked neural activity (Key study: Zozulia et al. 2008)
True to its peptide form, Selank works with the body’s systems instead of intervening upon them. This was enough for Selank to gain formal approval from the Russian Ministry of Health for the treatment of anxiety disorders in 2009. But it hasn’t been enough for Selank to earn its own randomized controlled trial in the United States, let alone gain FDA approval.
Like many experimental peptides, Selank is currently waiting in the wings while legislators and pharmaceutical companies do battle over who gets what when in our healthcare system. But if you ask me, I don’t think it’ll be long before word of mouth about Selank catches on. This peptide’s effects are well-documented, and hard to deny.