Adamax vs Semax vs Selank: Three Neurotropic Peptides Compared

The short answer

Semax is an analog of a fragment of ACTH, specifically the ACTH(4-10) region, modified for stability. Selank is an analog of tuftsin, an immunomodulatory peptide, similarly modified. Adamax is a further modified ACTH-fragment analog, placing it closer to Semax in lineage than to Selank. All three were developed in the Russian peptide-research tradition.

Semax and Selank: cousins by development, not by sequence

Semax and Selank are cousins: both are stable, Russian-developed heptapeptides that emerged from the same research programme and are frequently studied alongside each other. Their parent sequences are unrelated, though - Semax derives from an ACTH fragment, Selank from tuftsin - so the relationship is one of research lineage rather than molecular similarity.

Semax was developed in Russia in the 1980s-1990s at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and much of the published literature for both compounds is Russian-language. That is a practical constraint for researchers: the evidence base exists but is less accessible in English-language indexes than the literature for Western-developed compounds.

Where Adamax sits

Adamax is a further modified ACTH-fragment analog, which places it in the Semax lineage rather than the Selank one. Its published literature is more limited than either, and largely preclinical. A researcher encountering Adamax through search should be aware that the comparative depth of evidence behind it is thinner than for the other two.

Evidence quality

All three sit at a preclinical or early evidence stage from the standpoint of English-language indexed literature. Study models are predominantly rodent and cell-based. Research designs treating any of the three as an established intervention are not supported by the published record.