Home / Research library / Semax
Compound guide
Semax: what the research covers
The first four residues of ACTH with three extra amino acids bolted on the end. The fragment keeps the behavioural activity of the parent hormone and loses its hormonal activity entirely.
What Semax is
Adrenocorticotropic hormone is thirty-nine residues long, and its hormonal function — driving cortisol release from the adrenal cortex — depends on a region Semax does not contain. Semax is ACTH(4-10), the fragment Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro, with the carboxy-terminal Pro-Gly-Pro added as a stabilising extension.
Removing the hormonal region while keeping the behaviourally active fragment is the design. The result has no corticotropic activity, so an effect observed with Semax cannot be attributed to a cortisol response — a confound that complicates work with the parent hormone.
The appended Pro-Gly-Pro is a protease-resistance motif found in endogenous regulatory peptides, and it extends the usable life of a fragment that would otherwise be cleaved within moments.
What the research reports
The best-developed strand concerns brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Published work reports that Semax increases BDNF and its receptor TrkB in hippocampal tissue, which gives a plausible route from a seven-residue peptide to effects on learning and memory in animal models without invoking a direct neurotransmitter action.
Beyond that, the literature covers modulation of the monoamine systems, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory readouts in ischaemia models, and effects on attention and adaptation in behavioural paradigms. Much of it was published in Russian-language journals, where the compound was developed and has been in clinical use, which is worth knowing when a literature search in English looks thinner than the actual evidence base.
Its usual comparison is Selank, a peptide from the same research programme built on a different parent molecule — the pairing is set out in Semax versus Selank.
How Amino Club supplies it
Semax is supplied lyophilised in sealed vials as Semax and as a metered Semax Nasal Spray, both specified at 99% purity or better by HPLC with identity confirmed by mass spectrometry and released against the Certificate of Analysis for their own batch. The lab testing page documents that sequence.
The methionine at position one is an oxidation-sensitive residue, so solutions are kept cold, dark and closed, and the sealed powder is stored below −18 °C. The spray format is already in solution, which trades shelf stability for the absence of a reconstitution step. Diluents for the lyophilised vial are under reconstitution supplies.
Related reading
Semax belongs to the cognitive and sleep research peptides group with Selank, DSIP and Dihexa.
Every guide is indexed in the research library. Certificates and storage are covered on the FAQ, quantity pricing through bulk and wholesale.
Research use only
Semax supplied by Amino Club is a laboratory reference material. It is not a medicine, not a supplement, and not for human or veterinary use, and no dosing guidance or administration protocol is provided. The full terms are in the research use policy.