The short version of peptidase cleavage fits in a sentence. The long version — which is the one that helps — is below.
This page was last updated on 2026-04-23 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
Identity and purity are commonly assessed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, with ultraviolet detection near 214 nanometers for the peptide backbone. Mass spectrometry, either electrospray or matrix-assisted laser desorption, confirms molecular mass and detects truncation or modification products. Amino acid analysis can verify composition. Because the sequence contains no strongly absorbing aromatic residue apart from phenylalanine, detection wavelengths are chosen carefully. Purity values above 95 percent are typical for research-grade material.
Quality documentation for research-grade peptide usually includes a certificate of analysis stating purity, identity, and residual counterion content. Batch-to-batch variation in purity and salt form is a recognized issue, and comparisons across suppliers require attention to the exact counterion, for example acetate versus trifluoroacetate. Sequence verification by tandem mass spectrometry provides stronger evidence than a single mass measurement. For any study reporting biological results, the analytical method and the measured purity should be stated explicitly. Independent verification of supplier claims is considered good practice.
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.
Development of the compound took place in the Soviet Union during the 1980s, largely through peptide research groups affiliated with the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute and Moscow State University. Investigators screened fragments of adrenocorticotropic hormone for activity on the central nervous system while attempting to separate cognitive effects from hormonal ones. The shortened sequence was selected because it retained behavioral activity in animal models without stimulating corticosteroid release. Early publications described the molecule as an ACTH(4-10) analog.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Typical purity | ≥95% by HPLC | Research-grade material |
| Detection wavelength | 214 nm | Peptide bond absorbance |
| Reconstitution medium | Sterile water or saline | Prepare fresh or aliquot immediately |
| Storage (solution) | -80 °C, single-use aliquots | Avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles |
| Common salt form | Acetate or trifluoroacetate | Affects mass and solubility |
Circulation time for the peptide is short because peptidases cleave it readily. The Pro-Gly-Pro tail is thought to slow breakdown compared with the bare ACTH fragment, but the gain appears modest. Absorption after intranasal dosing is limited, and only a fraction of a dose is expected to reach the central nervous system. Laboratory concentrations therefore sit well above levels achieved systemically, a gap that complicates translation from bench findings to clinical claims.
The mechanisms attributed to semax are inferred from animal and cell studies rather than traced to one confirmed target. The most frequently cited pathway involves increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor in hippocampal and cortical tissue. Some work points to engagement of melanocortin receptors, particularly MC4, which the parent ACTH fragment can activate. Effects on dopaminergic and serotonergic signalling have also been reported. No single account explains all observed results, and the relative weight of each pathway remains unsettled.
Development is attributed to researchers at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Moscow during the early 1980s, building on earlier Soviet work with ACTH fragments. Russian regulatory approval followed for intranasal use, and the compound has remained commercially available there for decades. Most published human data originate from Russian and, later, some Eastern European clinical reports, which are not always accessible in English translation. Outside that region the material is generally handled as a research chemical rather than a licensed medicine.
Regulatory status differs sharply between jurisdictions. In Russia the peptide is registered as a prescription nasal preparation, while agencies such as the United States Food and Drug Administration have not approved it for any indication. Products sold elsewhere are typically labeled for laboratory research only, and such labels shift responsibility for safe handling to the purchaser. Because the same name covers pharmaceutical-grade nasal drops and bulk research powder, identity and purity documentation becomes the main practical concern when comparing sources.
Semax is a synthetic seven-amino-acid peptide whose sequence extends the ACTH(4-10) fragment with a C-terminal proline-glycine-proline tripeptide. The commonly cited sequence is Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro, giving a molecular formula near C37H51N9O10S and a molecular weight close to 813.9 g/mol. It belongs to the broader class of synthetic ACTH fragments studied for central nervous system effects rather than for adrenal steroid stimulation. In practice the material appears as a lyophilized white powder for laboratory work or as a dilute saline solution in clinical settings.
For services to Safety at Sea. Derek Baum. For services to the Association of Jewish ex-Servicemen and Women. Donald James MacDonald Beaton, Shepherd, Roslin Institute. For services to Scientific Research. Mary Loveday Beazley. For services to the community in Wormley, Hertfordshire. Marian Beckett, Assistant Caretaker, Priestley College, Warrington, Cheshire. For services to Education. Howard Philip Bell, Honorary Liaison Officer (Eastern Region), Royal National Lifeboat Institution. For services to the RNLI. Clarice Mary Bennett. For services to the British Red Cross Society in Norfolk. Thelma Berry. For services to the Norfolk Foster Care Association. David Wyn Bevan. For services to Industrial Relations in Wales. Mary Winifred Bevan. For services to the NSPCC in Merthyr Tydfil. Deirdre Bevis, Administrative Officer, Ministry of Defence. Fred Billingsley, Higher Professional and Technology Officer, Ministry of Defence. Anthea Billington, Secretary to the Managing Director, Britannia Airways Ltd. For services to the Aviation Industry. Margaret Elizabeth Bingham. For services to Tourism. Jean Shirley Bird, Range B, Her Majesty's Treasury. Edward John Birkett. For services to the community in Canning Town, London. Brian Anthony Blackshaw, Sub-Divisional Officer, West Mercia Special Constabulary. For services to the Police. Mary Elizabeth Bloomer. For services to the community. Christine Boddy. For political service. William Charles Boddy, Founder and Editor, Motor Sport. For services to Sports Journalism. Barbara May Bolton.
Passive smoke is a mixture of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It is involuntarily inhaled, lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished, and may cause a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma. Studies have shown that exposure to passive smoke causes harmful effects on the cardiovascular system and is associated with prevalent heart failure among non-smokers. Non-smokers who are exposed to passive smoke at home or work are thought, due to a wide variety of statistical studies, to increase their heart disease risk by 25–30% and their lung cancer risk by 20–30%. According to the World Health Organization, passive smoke is reported to kill about 1 million people per year and causes numerous diseases including cancer and heart diseases. The current US Surgeon General's Report concludes that there is no established risk-free level of exposure to passive smoke. Short exposures to passive smoke are believed to cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the mortality of heart attacks. New research indicates that private research conducted by cigarette company Philip Morris in the 1980s showed that passive smoke was toxic, yet the company suppressed the finding during the next two decades.
=== 18 April === A German government website announced that the country had delivered a Patriot missile system to Ukraine. The United States is yet to confirm if the Patriot system it promised to Ukraine has been delivered. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry announced that it had created an online database of Russian and pro-Russian-separatist soldiers killed in Ukraine. Currently, it identified by name 56,827 "Russian representatives" killed in Ukraine, as well as their place and date of death.
The company was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1902 by Chester Garfield Fisher (1881–1965), originally called the "Scientific Materials Co.". After obtaining his degree in engineering at Western University of Pennsylvania (now University of Pittsburgh), C.G. Fisher purchased the stockroom of the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory. Fisher became a supplier of lab equipment and reagents for the area's industrial research. Early products included microscopes, burets, pipettes, litmus, balances, colorimeters, dissecting kits, and anatomical models. The first catalog, the 400 page Scientific Materials Co. Catalog of Laboratory Apparatus & Supplies, was published in 1904. Fisher established an R&D lab at his company in 1915. Edwin Fisher, Chester's brother, developed the Meker-Fisher burner in 1921, an advancement on the design of the Bunsen burner. The company manufactured an electric-combustion furnace and combustion train for analyzing carbon levels in steel, and an electrically heated and thermostatically controlled bacteriological incubator. In 1925, the company purchased Montreal-based Scientific Supplies, Ltd. The same year, the company was renamed Fisher Scientific. In 1940, Fisher Scientific acquired the New York supply company Eimer & Amend, which was founded in 1851 by Bernard G. Amend. Aiken Fisher, Chester's oldest son, became president of the company in 1949. In 1955, Fisher established a chemical manufacturing facility in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. In 1957, the company purchased the New York–based medical apparatus supply company E. Machlett & Sons.
=== Other ester reactivities === Esters react with nucleophiles at the carbonyl carbon. The carbonyl is weakly electrophilic but is attacked by strong nucleophiles (amines, alkoxides, hydride sources, organolithium compounds, etc.). The C–H bonds adjacent to the carbonyl are weakly acidic but undergo deprotonation with strong bases. This process is the one that usually initiates condensation reactions. The carbonyl oxygen in esters is weakly basic, less so than the carbonyl oxygen in amides due to resonance donation of an electron pair from nitrogen in amides, but forms adducts. As for aldehydes, the hydrogen atoms on the carbon adjacent ("α to") the carboxyl group in esters are sufficiently acidic to undergo deprotonation, which in turn leads to a variety of useful reactions. Deprotonation requires relatively strong bases, such as alkoxides. Deprotonation gives a nucleophilic enolate, which can further react, e.g., the Claisen condensation and its intramolecular equivalent, the Dieckmann condensation. This conversion is exploited in the malonic ester synthesis, wherein the diester of malonic acid reacts with an electrophile (e.g., alkyl halide), and is subsequently decarboxylated. Another variation is the Fráter–Seebach alkylation.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
== Regulation == Based on research using mice and studies of Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), which is characterized by hypermobility of the joints, and high levels of skin laxity, researcher found that tenascin X expression levels correlated with the number of present collagen fibrils. In humans, tenascin X is associated with EDS. Through their research, researcher confounded the original hypothesis that tenascin X interfered with collagen fibrillogenesis and suggest that it acts rather as a regulator of collagen fibrillogenesis. Data suggest tenascin is a regulator of collagen fibril spacing. In vitro tests yield evidence that suggest tenascin X accelerates collagen fibril formation through an additive mechanism when collagen VI is present. In addition to tenascin X, multiple proteins, glycoconjugates, and small molecules have shown to influence not only the rate of collagen fibrillogenesis, but also the structure of collagen fibrils as well as their size in lab studies.
People of any age can develop a keloid. Children under 10 are less likely to develop keloids, even from ear piercing. Keloids may also develop from pseudofolliculitis barbae; continued shaving when one has razor bumps will irritate the bumps, infection, and over time, keloids will form. Persons with razor bumps are advised to stop shaving for the skin to repair itself before undertaking any form of hair removal. The tendency to form keloids is speculated to be hereditary. Keloids can tend to appear to grow over time without even piercing the skin, almost acting out a slow tumorous growth; the reason for this tendency is unknown. Extensive burns, either thermal or radiological, can lead to unusually large keloids; these are especially common in firebombing casualties and were a signature effect of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The true incidence and prevalence of keloid in the United States are not known. Indeed, there has never been a population study to assess the epidemiology of this disorder. In his 2001 publication, Marneros stated that "reported incidence of keloids in the general population ranges from a high of 16% among the adults in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a low of 0.09% in England," quoting from Bloom's 1956 publication on heredity of keloids. Clinical observations show that the disorder is more common among sub-Saharan Africans, African Americans and Asians, with unreliable and very wide estimated prevalence rates ranging from 4.5 to 16%.
=== Clinical Marker === A multi-locus genetic risk score study based on a combination of 27 loci, including the COL4A1 gene, identified individuals at increased risk for both incident and recurrent coronary artery disease events, as well as an enhanced clinical benefit from statin therapy. The study was based on a community cohort study (the Malmo Diet and Cancer study) and four additional randomized controlled trials of primary prevention cohorts (JUPITER and ASCOT) and secondary prevention cohorts (CARE and PROVE IT-TIMI 22).
In 1997, an antibody conjugate with bismuth-213 (half-life 45.6 minutes, emits alpha particles) was used to treat leukemia patients, and it has been used in other cancer treatment, for example, in the targeted alpha therapy experimental program.
== In the heart == In the heart, A1 receptors play roles in electrical pacing (chronotropy and dromotropy), fluid balance, local sympathetic regulation, and metabolism. When bound by adenosine, A1 receptors inhibit impulses generated in supraventricular tissue (SA node, AV node) and the Bundle of His/Purkinje system, leading to negative chronotropy (slowing of the heart rate). Specifically, A1 receptor activation leads to inactivation of the inwardly rectifying K+ current and inhibition of the inward Ca2+ current (ICa) and the 'funny' hyperpolarization-activated current (If). Adenosine agonism of A1ARs also inhibits release of norepinephrine from cardiac nerves. Norepinephrine is a positive chronotrope, inotrope, and dromotrope, through its agonism of β adrenergic receptors on pacemaker cells and ventricular myocytes. Collectively, these mechanisms lead to an myocardial depressant effect by decreasing the conduction of electrical impulses and suppressing pacemaker cells function, resulting in a decrease in heart rate. This makes adenosine a useful medication for treating and diagnosing tachyarrhythmias, or excessively fast heart rates. This effect on the A1 receptor also explains why there is a brief moment of cardiac standstill when adenosine is administered as a rapid IV push during cardiac resuscitation. The rapid infusion causes a momentary myocardial stunning effect. In normal physiological states, this serves as protective mechanisms.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== Faïences décoratives de la Vieille Turquie (Decorative Faience in Ancient Turkey) === Raymond published Faïences décoratives de la Vieille Turquie (Decorative Faience in Ancient Turkey) through the Paris publisher Albert Morancé; a little book that reproduced some of the plates from L'Art Islamique en Orient and introduced new ones.
In April 2023, President Lula began his four-day trip during which he called Portugal relations with Brazil "extraordinary" and stated that "Portugal is not simply a foreign country but our home extension". In the 13th Brazil-Portugal Summit the countries signed several agreements such as a mutual recognition of professional degrees, driver's licenses, rights of persons with disabilities and a witness protection programme in both countries. Other agreements signed during the visit include education, science, tourism, energy and audiovisual areas. Lula also attended a high-level Brazilian-Portuguese business meeting in Matosinhos in which Brazilian aerospace giant Embraer and four Portuguese companies (OGMA, EMPORDEF, GMVIS Skysof and CEiiA) announced a deal to build a Brazilian-designed aircraft. Also in the meeting, Prime Minister António Costa announced Portugal companies EDP and Galp will be investing a total of €5.7 billion in projects in Brazil over the next years. On 24 April, Lula took part in a ceremony at the Queluz Palace to award Brazilian singer and songwriter Chico Buarque the Camões Prize.
First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan is appointed a Privy Councillor. 29 August – Starmer confirms that the UK government is considering introducing tougher measures on outdoor smoking in order to reduce the number of tobacco-related deaths. Colum Eastwood announces he will resign as leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, triggering a leadership election. 30 August – A review is launched into Starmer's appointments of Labour donors to senior civil service jobs following allegations of cronyism. Conservative MP Esther McVey is criticised as "repugnant" by Jewish groups for sharing part of "First They Came", Martin Niemoller's 1946 poem about the Holocaust, in a tweet voicing her opposition to proposed new bans on outdoor smoking. McVey insists she was not equating the bans with Nazi persecution of the Jews, and says "no offence was ever intended". It is reported that Starmer has moved a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from her former 10 Downing Street study to elsewhere in the building. He subsequently says that he moved the portrait because he "didn’t want a picture of anyone" in his study and prefers landscapes. 2024 Ulster Unionist Party leadership election: After nominations close, Mike Nesbitt is the only candidate to put their name forward, and will be ratified as the party's next leader at a meeting on 14 September. During a closed-door session at the SNP Party Conference, leader John Swinney tells delegates the party's losses at the election occurred because it spent too much time focusing on the "process of independence".
Risk of developing CJD increases with age. CJD incidence was 3.5 cases per million among those over 50 years of age between 1979 and 2017. Approximately 85% of CJD cases are sporadic, and 10–15% of CJD cases are due to inherited mutations of the prion protein gene. CJD deaths and age-adjusted death rate in the United States indicate an increasing trend in the number of deaths between 1979 and 2017. Although not fully understood, additional information suggests that CJD rates in nonwhite groups are lower than in whites. While the mean onset is approximately 67 years of age, cases of sCJD have been reported as young as 17 years and over 80 years of age. Mental capabilities rapidly deteriorate and the average amount of time from onset of symptoms to death is 7 to 9 months. According to a 2020 systematic review on the international epidemiology of CJD:
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Solid peptide is best kept frozen at about minus 20 degrees Celsius in a sealed container with desiccant. It should be allowed to reach room temperature before opening to prevent condensation. Repeated warming and cooling of the same vial is discouraged.
Reversed-phase liquid chromatography establishes purity, while mass spectrometry confirms molecular mass. The two techniques are normally used together. Retention time alone is not sufficient evidence of identity.
Different counterions change the mass per unit of peptide and can shift chromatographic behavior. Two samples of equal stated purity may therefore not be directly comparable. Reports should specify the counterion whenever quantitative comparisons are made.
It is a synthetic peptide of seven amino acids. Its backbone corresponds to a fragment of adrenocorticotropic hormone extended at the carboxyl end. The material is distributed as a lyophilized solid for laboratory use.