A practical reference on heptapeptide: what it is, how it behaves, what the literature reports, and where the honest uncertainties sit.
This page was last updated on 2026-01-12 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
Semax is a synthetic heptapeptide developed in the Soviet Union during the 1980s by researchers at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow. It was designed as a truncated analog of adrenocorticotropic hormone, retaining only the fragment spanning residues four through ten. Investigators sought a peptide that would preserve the cognitive effects associated with ACTH while eliminating the hormonal stimulation of the adrenal cortex. The compound entered clinical use in Russia during the following decade.
Russian regulatory authorities approved the peptide for nasal administration, and it remains listed in the national pharmacopoeia under several trade names. Documented indications include acute ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attacks, traumatic brain injury, and certain ophthalmological and neurological conditions. Physicians also prescribe it for cognitive complaints in older patients, although the evidence base for that use is thinner. Outside Russia and a few neighboring states, the substance is not an approved medicine and is sold instead as a research chemical.
Semax 是人工设计的七肽，序列为 Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro，骨架取自促肾上腺皮质激素片段 ACTH(4-10)。它于二十世纪八十年代在苏联的分子遗传学研究机构内合成。设计目标是保留该片段与注意力和记忆相关的活性，同时剔除促皮质激素释放等内分泌作用。此后俄罗斯将其登记为药品并进入临床使用。
当时的短肽研究普遍关注能否穿越血脑屏障、在低剂量下产生中枢效应，Semax 属于这一路线。鼻内给药是其主要使用方式，俄语文献报道的适应症涵盖缺血性卒中、短暂性脑缺血发作、认知功能减退以及视神经病变。这些研究大多发表在当地期刊上，样本规模与终点设置同西方试验惯例存在差异，国际同行对其临床证据的强度看法不一。
各国监管态度分化明显。俄罗斯按处方药管理，部分东欧国家留有使用记录；欧盟与美国未批准其作为药物上市，市面流通品通常标注为研究用化学品。身份差异意味着标示含量、纯度与无菌性缺少统一核查。体育领域还牵涉反兴奋剂名录，跨境携带则受目的地药品法规约束。
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular class | Synthetic heptapeptide | Analog of an ACTH fragment |
| Amino acid length | Seven residues | Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro |
| Origin | Moscow, 1980s | Institute of Molecular Genetics |
| Approved regions | Russia and some neighboring states | Not cleared in Western markets |
| Common trade names | Multiple national brands | Sold as a nasal formulation |
Semax 是一种人工合成的七肽，氨基酸序列为 Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro，单字母缩写记作 MEHFPGP。它被归类为促肾上腺皮质激素片段 ACTH(4-10) 的结构类似物，但并不天然存在于生物体内。母体片段 ACTH(4-10) 的序列为 Met-Glu-His-Phe-Arg-Trp-Gly，Semax 替换了中间两个残基，并在羧基端延长了 Pro-Gly-Pro 三肽。这种延长被普遍认为能提升分子对肽酶的耐受性。
该化合物于二十世纪八十年代在俄罗斯被开发，相关工作由俄罗斯科学院分子遗传学研究所的研究团队主导。开发目标并非复制 ACTH 的完整激素活性，而是寻找保留其神经作用方向、同时去除促肾上腺皮质激素释放效应的短肽片段。研究记录显示，这一方向促成了多个相关短肽的合成与筛选，而 Semax 是其中被研究最广泛的一个。当地文献常以 Семакс 这一名称指代它。
Clinical reports describe use in ischaemic stroke, transient ischaemic attack, optic nerve conditions, and cognitive complaints, but most of these studies are small and were conducted in a single region. Systematic reviews have generally described the evidence base as limited in size and variable in methodological quality. Randomised controlled data suitable for international regulatory assessment are scarce. As a result, major treatment guidelines outside Russia do not include the peptide, and interest in it remains largely research-driven rather than routine clinical.
Semax is a synthetic heptapeptide with the sequence Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro. It is described in the literature as an analogue of the ACTH(4–10) fragment, a short N-terminal portion of adrenocorticotropic hormone that retains some neurotropic activity without the full hormonal effects of the parent peptide. The molecule carries a methionine residue at the N-terminus and two proline residues near the C-terminus, features that shape both its interactions with receptor systems and its chemical stability. The free peptide corresponds to the formula C37H51N9O10S and a molecular mass near 813.9 Da.
To enforce the amendment, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act. The Prohibition Bureau Narcotics Division, which enforced the Harrison Act, was overseen by Levi G. Nutt, the 1st narcotics commissioner of the United States. By the 1930s, the policy was seen as a failure: production and consumption of alcohol persisted, organized crime flourished in the alcohol black market, and tax revenue, particularly needed after the start of the Great Depression in 1929, was lost. Prohibition was repealed by passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) asking Americans not to abuse "this return to personal freedom." In 1922, the Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act broadened federal regulation of opiates and coca products by prohibiting import and export for non-medical use, and established the Federal Narcotics Control Board (FNCB) to administrate.
== Contribution to Chemistry == The enduring contributions of Zervas were made together with Bergmann and involved the first successful synthesis of substantial length oligopeptides. They achieved this using the carboxybenzyl amine protecting group for the masking of the N-terminus of the growing oligopeptide chain to which amino acid residues are added in a serial manner. The carboxybenzyl group discovered by Zervas is introduced by reaction with benzyl chloroformate, originally in aqueous sodium carbonate solution at 0 °C:
=== Others === In shaving soap and aftershave products to relieve razor burn. As a smoking tobacco additive in some cigarette brands, for flavor, and to reduce throat and sinus irritation caused by smoking. Menthol also increases nicotine receptor density, increasing the addictive potential of tobacco products. As a pesticide against tracheal mites of honey bees. In perfumery, menthol is used to prepare menthyl esters to emphasize floral notes (especially rose). In various patches ranging from fever-reducing patches applied to children's foreheads to "foot patches" to relieve numerous ailments (the latter being much more frequent and elaborate in Asia, especially Japan: some varieties use "functional protrusions", or small bumps to massage one's feet as well as soothing them and cooling them down). As an antispasmodic and smooth muscle relaxant in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
In human anatomy, juncturae tendinum or connexus intertendinei refers to the connective tissues that link the tendons of the extensor digitorum communis, and sometimes, to the tendon of the extensor digiti minimi. Juncturae tendinum are located on the dorsal aspect of the hand in the first, second and third inter-metacarpal spaces proximal to the metacarpophalangeal joint.
== Mechanism == At the cellular level, metabolic myopathies lack some kind of enzyme or transport protein that prevents the chemical reactions necessary to create adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is often referred to as the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. The lack of ATP prevents the muscle cells from being able to function properly. Some people with a metabolic myopathy never develop symptoms due to the body's ability to produce enough ATP through alternative pathways (e.g. the majority of those with AMP-deaminase deficiency are asymptomatic). H2O + ATP → H+ + ADP + Pi + energy → muscle contraction ATP is needed for muscle contraction by two processes:
== Worldwide incidence by country == The total number of centenarians in the world is uncertain. The Population Division of the United Nations estimated that there were 23,000 in 1950, 110,000 in 1990, 150,000 in 1995, 209,000 in 2000, 324,000 in 2005, 455,000 in 2009, 675,000 in 2019 and 935,000 in 2024. These older estimates, however, did not take into account downward adjustments of national estimates made by several countries such as the United States. The UN estimated in 2012, as a result of these adjustments, that there were only 316,600 centenarians worldwide. The following table gives estimated centenarian populations by country, including both the latest and the earliest known estimates, where available. A study which received a 2024 Ig Nobel Prize found these numbers are inflated by welfare and pension fraud and poor record-keeping, neither of which are uniform across jurisdictions.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Likewise, some scientists have proposed that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship, in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. In particular, Emil Bächler suggested (based on archaeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a bear cult was widespread among Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals. A claim that evidence was found for Middle Paleolithic animal worship c. 70,000 BCE originates from the Tsodilo Hills in the African Kalahari desert has been denied by the original investigators of the site. Animal cults in the Upper Paleolithic, such as the bear cult, may have had their origins in these hypothetical Middle Paleolithic animal cults. Animal worship during the Upper Paleolithic was intertwined with hunting rites. For instance, archaeological evidence from art and bear remains reveals that the bear cult apparently involved a type of sacrificial bear ceremonialism, in which a bear was shot with arrows, finished off by a shot or thrust in the lungs, and ritually worshipped near a clay bear statue covered by a bear fur with the skull and the body of the bear buried separately. Barbara Ehrenreich controversially theorizes that the sacrificial hunting rites of the Upper Paleolithic (and by extension Paleolithic cooperative big-game hunting) gave rise to war or warlike raiding during the following Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic or late Upper Paleolithic.
Economist Martin Wolf explained in July 2012 that government fiscal balance is one of three major financial sectoral balances in the U.S. economy, the others being the foreign financial sector and the private financial sector. The sum of the surpluses or deficits across these three sectors must be zero by definition. Since the foreign and private sectors are in surplus, the government sector must be in deficit. Wolf argued that the sudden shift in the private sector from deficit to surplus due to the global economic conditions forced the government balance into deficit, writing: "The financial balance of the private sector shifted towards surplus by the almost unbelievable cumulative total of 11.2 percent of gross domestic product between the third quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2009, which was when the financial deficit of US government (federal and state) reached its peak...No fiscal policy changes explain the collapse into massive fiscal deficit between 2007 and 2009, because there was none of any importance. The collapse is explained by the massive shift of the private sector from financial deficit into surplus or, in other words, from boom to bust." Economist Paul Krugman also explained in December 2011 the causes of the sizable shift from private sector deficit to surplus: "This huge move into surplus reflects the end of the housing bubble, a sharp rise in household saving, and a slump in business investment due to lack of customers."
== Properties == A single-domain antibody is a peptide chain of about 110 amino acids long, comprising one variable domain (VH) of a heavy-chain antibody, or of a common IgG. These peptides have similar affinity to antigens as whole antibodies, but are more heat-resistant and stable towards detergents and high concentrations of urea. Those derived from camelid and fish antibodies are less lipophilic and more soluble in water, owing to their complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3), which forms an extended loop (coloured orange in the ribbon diagram above) covering the lipophilic site that normally binds to a light chain. In contrast to common antibodies, two out of six single-domain antibodies survived a temperature of 90 °C (194 °F) without losing their ability to bind antigens in a 1999 study. Stability towards gastric acid and proteases depends on the amino acid sequence. Some species have been shown to be active in the intestine after oral application, but their low absorption from the gut impedes the development of systemically active orally administered single-domain antibodies.
=== Cow's grass === In Ireland, before the 19th century, a "cow's grass" was a measurement used by farmers to indicate the size of their fields. A cow's grass was equal to the amount of land that could produce enough grass to support a cow.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
It originated at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow during the 1980s. The work was carried out by a Russian research group that specialized in peptide neuropharmacology.
It is registered as a medicine in Russia and has been used clinically there for decades. No regulatory agency in Western Europe or North America has approved it for any indication.
Semax corresponds to the four-to-ten fragment of adrenocorticotropic hormone. Because it omits the first three residues, it lacks the adrenal-stimulating action of the full hormone.
不存在。它是依据 ACTH 的一段序列人工设计的分子，天然蛋白质中找不到与之完全相同的七肽。名称属于研究代号，而非天然物质名。