This is a working overview of ACTH(4-10), written for readers who want more than a one-paragraph summary but less than a textbook.
This page was last updated on 2026-08-01 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
多数实验室与市售的 Semax 以冻干粉形式提供。冻干粉通常建议保存在 -20 °C 或更低温度下,同时避免光照与反复升温。短期运输有时采用冷藏条件,但长期保存仍以冷冻为主。分包操作应尽量减少开盖次数,以降低吸湿和微生物污染的风险。开封后若未一次用完,建议在干燥环境中密封并尽快放回低温储存。
溶液状态的稳定性明显低于冻干粉。肽类在水溶液中可能经历水解、氧化与聚集,其中甲硫氨酸和天冬酰胺等残基常是敏感位点。Semax 含有甲硫氨酸,因此氧化风险相对突出。工作液一般主张现配现用,或冷藏并在数日内用尽。缓冲液种类、pH 和离子强度都会影响降解速率,而关于最佳条件的公开数据并不统一。
Clinical evidence consists largely of small trials with modest sample sizes, often without independent replication. Reported endpoints include cognitive scores, recovery after stroke, and visual function, but study designs vary widely and few trials meet contemporary reporting standards. Systematic reviewers have noted a high risk of bias in several of these reports. No large multicenter trial conducted outside Russia has been published. The compound is therefore best described as investigational in most jurisdictions, with its clinical role still unresolved.
Semax is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro. Its chain combines the first seven residues of corticotropin with a C-terminal proline-glycine-proline extension, a modification intended to slow enzymatic breakdown. The free peptide has a molecular mass near 813.9 daltons. It belongs to the class of ACTH-derived fragments studied for central nervous system activity rather than for adrenal steroid stimulation. This structural relationship to a natural hormone fragment is the usual starting point for describing the compound in the literature.
Development took place during the 1980s at institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where peptide fragments of ACTH were screened for cognitive and neuroprotective effects. The compound received regulatory approval in Russia as a nasal preparation, marketed for conditions such as ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attacks, and optic nerve disorders. Registration in other countries has not followed. Most published clinical reports originate from a small number of Russian research groups, and independent replication outside that setting remains limited. The regulatory status therefore differs sharply between Russia and the rest of the world.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 外观 | 白色至类白色粉末 | 常见于冻干制剂 |
| 溶解度 | 易溶于水 | 在极性溶剂中一般也可溶 |
| 建议储存温度 | -20 °C | 冻干粉,避光密封 |
| 常见分析手段 | 反相高效液相色谱 | 常与质谱联用 |
| 主要降解路径 | 水解与氧化 | 溶液状态更显著 |
Dissolution is normally performed in water, phosphate-buffered saline, or normal saline, since the peptide is freely soluble in aqueous media and is rarely handled with strong organic solvents. Solution pH should be kept near neutral, because extreme acidity or alkalinity accelerates backbone hydrolysis and encourages oxidation of the methionine side chain. Once dissolved, the material is less stable than the dry powder and is commonly divided into single-use portions and frozen. Buffers containing primary amines, such as Tris, are often avoided because of possible side reactions.
Purity assessment relies mainly on reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, which separates the target heptapeptide from truncated sequences, deletion analogues, and oxidised forms. Mass spectrometry, usually coupled to liquid chromatography, confirms identity through the expected molecular ion and reveals modifications such as methionine sulfoxide formation. Amino acid analysis can verify composition, and tandem mass spectrometry supports sequence confirmation. Ultraviolet detection near 254 to 280 nanometres is convenient because the phenylalanine and histidine residues absorb in that region. Nuclear magnetic resonance is rarely used for routine release testing.
Common degradation pathways include oxidation of the methionine side chain, hydrolysis of the peptide backbone, and aggregation under unfavourable pH or concentration. Stability studies typically monitor the main peak by chromatography and report total related substances as a percentage. Because no official monograph exists, acceptance criteria vary between laboratories, and reported purity values are not directly comparable across suppliers. Analysts therefore document the method, column, and detection wavelength alongside each result, and open questions remain about how much biological activity the oxidised forms retain.
The compound was developed during the 1980s at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow as part of research on fragments of adrenocorticotropic hormone. Early work examined short ACTH-derived sequences that retained neurotrophic effects while lacking the endocrine activity of the full hormone. Semax entered clinical use in Russia during the 1990s, where it received registration for several neurological indications. Outside that region it remained primarily a laboratory research material rather than an approved therapeutic. English-language literature on it grew more slowly and frequently cited the original Russian studies.
Terminology around the compound varies by source. It appears in catalogues and papers as Semax, as the heptapeptide ACTH(4-7)-Pro-Gly-Pro, and under various alphanumeric laboratory codes used by individual suppliers. These names refer to the same sequence but may imply different salt forms, purity grades, or counter-ions. Peptide databases usually list the free base mass, while product descriptions sometimes report acetate or trifluoroacetate salts with a different formula weight. Because naming conventions for research peptides are not standardised across vendors, checking the declared sequence and measured mass is more reliable than relying on a trade name alone.
Semax is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro. Its design combines the ACTH(4-7) core fragment with a C-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro extension, a modification intended to improve stability and prolong activity. The molecule is hydrophilic, carries no lipid chains or glycosylation, and has a theoretical mass just over 810 daltons in its free form. All seven residues are proteinogenic amino acids, so no non-natural building blocks appear in the backbone. A free N-terminal methionine and C-terminal proline define the unmodified parent peptide.
Claims about enhanced focus, memory, or mood in healthy people rest mostly on anecdotal reports and community discussion rather than on controlled data. It remains unclear whether any cognitive benefit observed in patients recovering from brain injury would extend to uninjured users. Dose-response relationships, long-term safety, and interactions with other drugs are not well characterized in the peer-reviewed literature. Questions about optimal route of administration and treatment duration likewise remain open.
Semax binds to melanocortin receptors and is thought to influence neuronal survival and plasticity rather than to act through the adrenal axis. Laboratory work has shown increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor in treated tissue. Changes in c-Fos, a marker of neuronal activation, have also been reported. Because the peptide is rapidly degraded by peptidases, its effects are generally attributed to downstream signaling cascades rather than to sustained receptor occupancy.
Published studies are dominated by animal models of stroke, ischemia, and cognitive impairment, with a smaller number of human trials conducted in Russia. Many of the human reports are small, single-center, and published in Russian-language journals, which limits independent scrutiny. Outcome measures vary between studies and often rely on clinician-rated scales rather than objective biomarkers. Systematic reviews have noted the methodological weaknesses and called for larger, preregistered trials before firm conclusions can be drawn.
Published research on this peptide originates mainly from Russian laboratories, and the wider international literature is comparatively thin. Studies have used rodent models of stroke, hypoxia, and memory tasks, with a smaller number of human trials reported. Reported outcomes include changes in attention and memory measures, along with effects on neurotrophic factor expression in some experiments. Small sample sizes, inconsistent dosing protocols, and limited independent replication are widely noted limitations, so the strength of the clinical evidence remains an open question.
Semax is a synthetic heptapeptide whose sequence is Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro. The first four residues correspond to the ACTH(4-10) fragment, while the terminal Pro-Gly-Pro extension was added to improve metabolic stability. Its molecular formula is C37H51N9O10S and its monoisotopic mass is approximately 813.9 Da. The compound is classified as a peptide research chemical and as a registered pharmaceutical product in Russia, but it does not hold marketing approval in the European Union or the United States. Naming conventions vary across supplier catalogs.
=== Epilepsy === Infection, head injury, or strokes can cause sudden bursts of neuronal activity leading to abnormal behaviors, muscle movement, and mood changes. This condition is known as seizure. Epilepsy is characterized by recurring seizures. Some possible causes of epilepsy include imbalance or disruption of neurotransmitters, strokes, or brain injury. Intranasal delivery of carbamazepine nanoparticles increase antiepileptic drug bioavailability. Administering a self-assembling hydrogel with neuroactive drugs to treat Parkinson's disease appears to be biocompatible, low in toxicity, and have a good recovery capacity. Nasal delivery of this gel demonstrated increased drug concentration in the brain. Oxytocin is a hormone which is observed to alleviate anxiety symptoms in people with autism. Intranasal administration indicated efficient transfer of pharmacologically active oxytocin from nasal cavity to brain.
Also in 2012, the group of Juho Rousu at University of Helsinki, Finland, introduced a machine learning method to predict molecular properties from tandem MS data. This concept was brought together with the fragmentation tree concept in 2015 resulting in CSI:FingerID, being introduced in SIRIUS 3. The fragmentation tree is used to predict a molecular fingerprint of the unknown molecule using machine learning, which in turn is used to search a molecular structure database such as PubChem. Molecular structure databases are orders of magnitude larger than reference spectra libraries (PubChem containing ~111 million compounds in 2021 compared to NIST Tandem Mass Spectral Library containing ~50.000 compounds in 2023). This kind of structure identification refers to the identity and connectivity (with bond multiplicities) of the atoms, but not stereochemistry information. Elucidation of stereochemistry is currently beyond the power of automated search engines. SIRIUS 3 also introduced the graphical user interface (GUI). In 2020, in cooperation with the group of Pieter C Dorrestein at UC San Diego, USA, molecular formula identification was improved based on derivative networks from complete biological datasets to rank molecular formula candidates. This method is called ZODIAC and has been integrated into SIRIUS 4. Also in 2020, in cooperation with Rousu's and Dorrestein's groups, CANOPUS for systematic compound class annotation was introduced to SIRIUS 4.
== History == According to historian Jacob Soll, while the term "think tank" is modern, with its origin "traced to the humanist academies and scholarly networks of the 16th and 17th centuries," evidence shows that, "in Europe, the origins of think tanks go back to the 800s when emperors and kings began arguing with the Catholic Church about taxes. A tradition of hiring teams of independent lawyers to advise monarchs about their financial and political prerogatives against the church spans from Charlemagne all the way to the 17th century, when the kings of France were still arguing about whether they had the right to appoint bishops and receive a cut of their income." Soll cites as an early example the Académie des frères Dupuy, created in Paris around 1620 by the brothers Pierre and Jacques Dupuy and also known after 1635 as the cabinet des frères Dupuy. The Club de l'Entresol, active in Paris between 1723 and 1731, was another prominent example of an early independent think tank focusing on public policy and current affairs, especially economics and foreign affairs.
=== 2000–2006 === The years from 2000 to 2006 were bloody ones in Colombia with thousands of deaths every year resulting from the ongoing war between the Colombian Armed Forces, Paramilitary groups such as the AUC, and the rebel groups (mainly the FARC, ELN and the EPL). The fighting resulted in massive internal displacement of Colombia's civilian population and thousands of civilian deaths. During President Uribe's first term in office (2002–2006), the security situation inside Colombia showed some measure of improvement, and the economy, while still fragile, showed some positive signs of recovery, according to observers. However, relatively little had been accomplished in structurally solving the country's other grave problems, such as poverty and inequality, possibly in part due to legislative and political conflicts between the administration and the Colombian Congress (including those over a controversial project to eventually give Uribe the possibility of re-election) and a relative lack of freely allocated funds and credits. Some critical observers considered that Uribe's policies, while reducing crime and guerrilla activity, were too slanted in favor of a military solution to Colombia's internal war, while neglecting grave social and human rights concerns. Critics asked for Uribe's government to change this position and make serious efforts towards improving the human rights situation inside the country, protecting civilians, and reducing any abuses committed by the armed forces.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
==== United States ==== In April 2020, The Hill reported that markets selling live animals were still operating in the United States and that animal rights activists were calling for the closure of such markets, in addition to their existing calls to close factory farms. Fresh food markets were common in New York City until refrigeration became commonplace in the 20th century. From the 1990s to 2020, the number of live animal markets in New York City nearly doubled. As of 2020, there are more than 80 markets in New York City that stock live animals and slaughter them on-demand for customers. They are mostly poultry markets located in outer-borough immigrant communities where they are culturally significant and pose low public health risks relative to wildlife markets and other types of exotic markets.
Rescue of Sendai virus minigenomes: The process begins with the rescue of Sendai virus minigenomes that encode the target proteins. This step is conducted in cell cultures, assisted by the wild-type Sendai virus, which acts as a helper virus. Propagation in embryonated eggs: Subsequently, the engineered viruses are propagated within the allantoic cavity of chicken embryonated eggs. This environment is conducive to the viruses' replication and protein production. To enhance yields, the process may undergo several iterations across different generations of eggs. Yield enhancement: Comparative studies have demonstrated that this method yields protein quantities that are 5 to 10 times greater than those produced in cell culture supernatants infected with vaccinia virus recombinants.
Surgical pathology is one of the primary areas of practice for most anatomical pathologists. Surgical pathology involves the gross and microscopic examination of surgical specimens, as well as biopsies submitted by surgeons and non-surgeons such as general internists, medical subspecialists, dermatologists, and interventional radiologists. Often an excised tissue sample is the best and most definitive evidence of disease (or lack thereof) in cases where tissue is surgically removed from a patient. These determinations are usually accomplished by a combination of gross (i.e., macroscopic) and histologic (i.e., microscopic) examination of the tissue, and may involve evaluations of molecular properties of the tissue by immunohistochemistry or other laboratory tests. There are two major types of specimens submitted for surgical pathology analysis: biopsies and surgical resections. A biopsy is a small piece of tissue removed primarily for surgical pathology analysis, most often in order to render a definitive diagnosis. Types of biopsies include core biopsies, which are obtained through the use of large-bore needles, sometimes under the guidance of radiological techniques such as ultrasound, CT scan, or magnetic resonance imaging. Incisional biopsies are obtained through diagnostic surgical procedures that remove part of a suspicious lesion, whereas excisional biopsies remove the entire lesion, and are similar to therapeutic surgical resections. Excisional biopsies of skin lesions and gastrointestinal polyps are very common.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== Age === Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in adults. The limited amount of research that has been done on BED shows that rates of binge eating disorder are fairly comparable among men and women. The lifetime prevalence of binge eating disorder has been observed in studies to be 2.0 percent for men and 3.5 percent for women, higher than that of the commonly recognized eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. However another systematic literature review found the prevalence average to be about 2.3% in women and about 0.3% in men. Lifetime prevalence rates for BED in women can range anywhere from 1.5 to 6 times higher than in men. One literature review found that point prevalence rates for BED vary from 0.1 percent to 24.1 percent depending on the sample. This same review also found that the 12-month prevalence rates vary between 0.1 percent to 8.8 percent. Adolescents also have a high risk of binge eating behavior. Incidence rates of 10.1 and 6.6 per 10,000 person years have been observed in male and female adolescents in the U.S., respectively.
=== Normal-phase === Normal phase elution is achieved by pumping the non-aqueous or phase of a biphasic solvent system through the column as the mobile phase, with a more polar stationary phase being retained in the column. The cause of original nomenclature of is relevant. As original stationary phases of paper chromatography were superseded by more efficient materials such as diatomaceous earths (natural micro-porous silica) and followed by modern silica gel, the thin-layer chromatography stationary phase was polar (hydroxy groups attached to silica) and maximum retention was achieved with non-polar solvents such as n-hexane. Progressively more polar eluents were then used to move polar compounds up the plate. Various alkane bonded phases were tried with C18 becoming the most popular. Alkane chains were chemically bonded to the silica, and a reversal of the elution trend occurred. Thus a polar stationary became "normal" phase chromatography, and the non-polar stationary phase chromatography became "reversed" phase chromatography.
==== Café La Crème shooting ==== In 2017, two masked hitmen fired shots at the Café La Crème in Marrakech, killing Hamza Chaib, a 26-year-old medical student, and injuring two others. A Glock 19 and a motorcycle used by the hitmen to flee were found charred nearby. The hitmen were identified by the Marrakech Prefecture Judicial Police as Shardyone Ulises Girigorio Semerel, a 29-year-old Dutch-Surinamese national, and Edwin Gabriel Robles Martínez, a 24-year-old Dutch-Dominican national. Six other suspects were detained. They were known to Moroccan authorities for their involvement in cases of international drug trafficking, kidnapping, armed robbery, and attempted homicide. Their initial target was the owner of the lounge, Mustapha "Mous" el Fechtali, a member of the Bouyakhrichan clan involved in international money laundering. Moroccan authorities are known to use torture on suspects to gain information, leading to the hitmen quickly pointing out Taghi as their ringleader. The shooting led to a closer collaboration between the Dutch and Moroccan authorities to combat organised crime, especially towards Taghi's organisation. The hitmen were sentenced to death by the Marrakech Court of Appeal in 2019. Mustapha el Fechtali was sentenced to 15 years in jail for drug trafficking. An alleged coordinator, 33-year-old Seddik Rais, was freed after his extradition from the Canary Islands.
== Derived units and SI multiples == The only SI derived unit with a special name derived from the mole is the katal, defined as one mole per second of catalytic activity. Like other SI units, the mole can also be modified by adding a metric prefix that multiplies it by a power of 10:
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
一般不建议常温长期保存。多数说明指向 -20 °C 冷冻避光。常温运输通常被视为短期可接受,但会加快降解风险。
公开资料对此没有统一答案。普遍建议现配现用,或冷藏并在数日内用完。含甲硫氨酸的序列更易氧化,放置时间越长风险越高。
反相高效液相色谱是最常用的手段,配合质谱确认分子量。氨基酸组成分析和肽图分析可补充序列层面的验证。
Semax is a synthetic seven-amino-acid peptide derived from a fragment of corticotropin. It is used in Russia as a nasal preparation, while elsewhere it is studied as a research compound. It is not approved as a medicine in most countries.