5-Amino-1MQ: 5.1% in Mice, Zero Humans, and the Salt That Changes the Milligrams

5-Amino-1MQ is a synthetic small molecule, not a peptide, that blocks the enzyme nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), and its best-known result is a 5.1% body-weight loss in 11 days in obese mice that ate about as much as untreated mice. NNMT is an enzyme, highly active in the white fat of obese mice, that tags nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, for removal from the cell. No human clinical trial of 5-amino-1MQ has been published as of September 2026, and no regulator has approved it for any use.

Sellers and clinics describe 5-amino-1MQ as fat loss without appetite suppression, and that description traces back to mouse studies from one University of Texas research group. PubChem files the active compound as a positively charged ion, 5-Amino-1-methylquinolinium | C10H11N2+ | CID 950107, so every product is a salt, and the salt's partner ion adds weight to the milligrams on the label. Peptigrity holds 184 third-party certificates for 5-amino-1MQ from 98 shops and 18 labs (verified September 2026), all published by the shops themselves and listed on the 5-Amino-1MQ lab tests page.

The short version

• 5-Amino-1MQ is a small synthetic molecule, not a peptide, that blocks an enzyme fat cells use to dispose of a form of vitamin B3.

• Obese mice given three injections a day lost 5.1% of their body weight in 11 days without eating less, and no human trial has been published as of September 2026.

• Tracked vials cost a median $1.36 per milligram before shipping, taxes and customs (verified September 2026), and no human dose or human safety record exists.

• A useful certificate confirms which molecule and which salt the container holds and how many milligrams are in it, because purity alone says little when 94% of the 183 purity results on Peptigrity reach 99% (verified September 2026).

• No regulator has approved 5-amino-1MQ, and in January 2026 FDA told a drug-compounding facility that it may not use the compound as an ingredient under the rules for outsourcing facilities.

What is 5-amino-1MQ?

5-Amino-1MQ (5-amino-1-methylquinolinium) is a synthetic small molecule, about 159 daltons as a free ion, that blocks the NNMT enzyme and has been tested only in cells and animals. It is not a peptide, because it contains no chain of amino acids, although peptide shops sell it. The molecule carries a permanent positive charge, so it is always sold as a salt, paired with a negatively charged partner called a counter-ion.

A dalton is the unit chemists use for the mass of a single molecule, and the 159-dalton figure follows from the formula PubChem lists, C10H11N2+, before any counter-ion is added. NNMT's job is to attach a methyl group, a one-carbon chemical tag, to nicotinamide. The methyl group comes from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), the main methyl donor inside cells, and the tagged product, 1-methylnicotinamide (1-MNA), is excreted.

Barbara Kahn's laboratory validated NNMT as an obesity target in 2014: silencing the enzyme with antisense oligonucleotides, short synthetic strands that switch off one gene, protected mice from diet-induced obesity, as reported in Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase knockdown protects against diet-induced obesity (Kraus et al., 2014), a study that silenced the gene and did not use 5-amino-1MQ. The compound itself came from a structure-guided chemistry program at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, led by Stanley Watowich with Harshini Neelakantan and chemists at the University of Texas at San Antonio, which picked 5-amino-1MQ from a series of methylquinolinium analogues for its potency and its ability to enter cells.

5-Amino-1MQ is shelved with the other weight loss & metabolic peptides on Peptigrity, although it works through a different mechanism from the GLP-1 drugs in that category.

How does 5-amino-1MQ change fat-cell metabolism?

5-Amino-1MQ slows the removal of nicotinamide in fat cells, and in cultured mouse fat cells that block raised NAD+, a coenzyme cells use to turn food into energy, by 1.2- to 1.6-fold. The same 2018 experiments recorded more SAM, less 1-MNA and 50–70% less fat accumulation at the two highest concentrations tested. These are cell-culture (in vitro) results, and no published study has measured them in people.

The paper Selective and membrane-permeable small molecule inhibitors of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase reverse high fat diet-induced obesity in mice (Neelakantan et al., 2018) reports an IC50 of 1.2 µM for 5-amino-1MQ against NNMT. IC50 is the concentration that halves an enzyme's activity in a test tube. The unit µM (micromolar) measures concentration. Inside differentiated fat cells, 2.3 µM halved the production of 1-MNA. The same paper tested 5 related enzymes, including NAMPT, an enzyme on the route that builds NAD+, and SIRT1, which consumes NAD+, and found no meaningful inhibition of any of them at the concentrations that blocked NNMT.

Blocking NNMT leaves more nicotinamide for the salvage pathway, the recycling route that rebuilds NAD+ from nicotinamide, and spares SAM for other methylation reactions, including the ones that mark DNA and histones, the proteins DNA is wound around. The treated fat cells showed no significant rise in nicotinamide itself, which the authors suggested may reflect its rapid conversion into NAD+. Claims that 5-amino-1MQ activates sirtuins, a family of NAD+-dependent enzymes, or builds new mitochondria in people are inferences from that pathway, not measurements in humans. Raising NAD+ from the supply side, with precursors such as nicotinamide riboside, is a separate strategy, and NAD+ Boosters sets out what its human trials have and have not shown.

What has 5-amino-1MQ done in mice?

5-Amino-1MQ cut body weight by 5.1% in 11 days in obese mice (n = 9 per group) while untreated mice gained 1.4%, and their abdominal fat pads shrank by about 35% with no drop in food intake. Later studies of NNMT inhibitors by the same University of Texas group reported less fatty liver, better blood-sugar control and stronger aged muscle in mice. None of these results has been tested in people.

The studies cited here, all in animals or cultured cells, line up as follows.

How much weight did obese mice lose in 11 days?

Obese mice lost 2.0 g, about 5.1% of their starting weight, over 11 days of three daily injections of 20 mg/kg of 5-amino-1MQ, while saline-treated mice gained 0.6 g, according to Selective and membrane-permeable small molecule inhibitors of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase reverse high fat diet-induced obesity in mice (Neelakantan et al., 2018). The male mice had eaten a high-fat diet for 16 weeks, a common model called diet-induced obesity, and the weight gap from controls became statistically significant on day 6. Cumulative food intake was 26.2 g in treated and 28.1 g in control mice, a difference that was not significant.

Epididymal fat pads, a large abdominal fat depot in male mice, were about 35% lighter, individual fat cells were more than 30% smaller, and total blood cholesterol was about 30% lower. The authors reported no observable adverse effects. A two-mouse pilot before the main experiment had raised the daily dose from 10 to 150 mg/kg and found no observable adverse effects at 60 mg/kg a day, the daily total the main experiment used. The experiment ran 11 days, used male mice only and tested one injected dose, so it says nothing about longer use, female animals, capsules or people.

Did a diet change or a longer course add anything?

Adding an NNMT inhibitor to a switch from a high-fat to a lean diet produced more weight and fat loss than the diet switch alone and brought body composition and liver fat back to the levels of lean control mice, as reported in Combined nicotinamide N-methyltransferase inhibition and reduced-calorie diet normalizes body composition and enhances metabolic benefits in obese mice (Sampson et al., 2021). The paper names the compound only as NNMTi, an inhibitor from the same research group.

A 28-day study of obese mice given 5-amino-1MQ once a day, Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase inhibition mitigates obesity-related metabolic dysfunction (Babula et al., 2024), found that the compound limited weight and fat gain in a dose-dependent way rather than producing weight loss, improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, and reduced fatty liver (hepatic steatosis). It also returned ALT and AST, blood markers of liver injury, to normal levels. The same paper measured blood levels of 5-amino-1MQ after intravenous, oral and subcutaneous doses, all in mice.

What happened in aged muscle?

In 24-month-old mice with an injured leg muscle, an NNMT inhibitor given at 5 or 10 mg/kg produced larger regenerating muscle fibers and about 70% more peak force than in controls, according to Small molecule nicotinamide N-methyltransferase inhibitor activates senescent muscle stem cells and improves regenerative capacity of aged skeletal muscle (Neelakantan et al., 2019). In Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase inhibition mimics and boosts exercise-mediated improvements in muscle function in aged mice (Dimet-Wiley et al., 2024), sedentary mice treated from 22 to 24 months of age showed about 40% greater grip strength than sedentary controls, against 20% for exercise alone. Both papers name the compound only as NNMTi, and the 2024 paper's authors include researchers from Ridgeline Therapeutics, a company developing NNMT inhibitors.

What is not known about 5-amino-1MQ in people?

Almost everything about 5-amino-1MQ in people is unknown: as of September 2026 no human study has measured how much of a dose reaches the blood, how long it lasts, which dose is tolerated or which side effects it causes. The only safety observations come from mouse studies lasting 11 days to about 2 months. The 2018 study reported no observable adverse effects at 60 mg/kg a day, and short mouse studies cannot detect slow or rare harms.

In cultured fat-cell precursors, 5-amino-1MQ caused modest cell death at 100–300 µM and about 40% cell death at 600 µM, concentrations roughly 80 to 500 times the 1.2 µM that halves NNMT activity (in vitro). NNMT inhibition also shifts the supply of SAM, the methyl donor cells use to regulate genes, and none of the studies cited here followed treatment beyond about 2 months. Peptigrity found no published data on pregnancy, breastfeeding, drug interactions or use alongside other weight-loss compounds. The 2024 obesity study in mice found lower insulin and better glucose handling, so an added blood-sugar-lowering effect alongside diabetes medication has not been ruled out, and it has not been measured either.

Research-grade products add risks that no study of the pure compound captures: what the container actually holds, which salt it contains and, for injected powder, whether it is sterile and how much bacterial endotoxin it carries. Endotoxin is made of fragments of bacterial cell walls, and it can trigger fever when injected.

Stop and seek care: swelling of the face or throat, difficulty breathing or hives after an injection are signs of a serious allergic reaction; spreading redness, warmth or pus at an injection site with fever is an infection; severe or persistent abdominal pain with vomiting on a GLP-1 drug can be pancreatitis; confusion, sweating or shaking on an IGF-1 or insulin-adjacent compound can be hypoglycaemia. Call your local emergency number (911 in the US, 112 in the EU, 999 in the UK, 000 in Australia) or go to an emergency department, and bring the vial and its label. Research-use vials are not approved products in any jurisdiction, even where a prescription product of the same molecule exists; no article on this site replaces a clinician who knows your history.

Which claims about 5-amino-1MQ does the research support?

No popular claim about 5-amino-1MQ has been tested in people. Fat loss without eating less was measured in obese mice over 11 days, higher NAD+ was measured in cultured fat cells, and stronger muscle was measured in aged mice. Peptigrity found no published 5-amino-1MQ study of energy levels, mental focus or lifespan at any tier. Each claim below is matched to the tier of evidence behind it, from animal data down to none.

Community reports rank below every row of the table, because they cannot separate the compound from diet changes, expectation and an unverified container. Members can post questions in the grey market peptide forum, and no 5-amino-1MQ question, discussion or protocol log had been posted on Peptigrity as of September 2026.

What dose of 5-amino-1MQ has been studied?

No human dose of 5-amino-1MQ has been established, because no published trial has given it to people as of September 2026. The studied doses are for mice: 20 mg/kg injected under the skin three times a day for 11 days in the 2018 obesity study, and 5 or 10 mg/kg in a 2019 aged-muscle study. A mouse dose converted by body weight is arithmetic, not a tested human dose.

Subcutaneous means injected into the fat layer under the skin. The 2018 paper expressed its dose two ways: three injections of 20 mg/kg made 60 mg/kg a day of the weighed material, which the authors calculated as about 34 mg/kg a day of the parent compound. The gap, about 43% of each weighed dose, is the weight of the counter-ion, so the milligrams on a label mean different amounts of active compound depending on whether they count the salt or the free ion.

A conversion from mice to people needs human data on absorption and clearance, and none exists for 5-amino-1MQ; its blood levels have been measured only in mice. Shops sell it as freeze-dried powder in vials, with 50 mg, 10 mg and 5 mg the most-tested label sizes on Peptigrity, and in capsule or tablet form, which the price feed leaves out of its per-milligram comparison (verified September 2026). Community dosing figures for capsules and injections circulate online, none has been tested in a person, and none could be traced to a verifiable source for this review.

The 5-Amino-1MQ Container Calculator divides a labeled container by an amount the reader supplies and prices each amount, and it prints no dose, no syringe units and no route.

How does 5-amino-1MQ compare with semaglutide and MOTS-c?

5-Amino-1MQ has the thinnest evidence of the three: semaglutide is an approved GLP-1 receptor agonist backed by large human trials, MOTS-c is a mitochondrial peptide whose efficacy data come from animals, and 5-amino-1MQ has only mouse and cell data. 5-Amino-1MQ is also the only one of the three that is not a peptide. A mouse weight-loss percentage and a human-trial percentage are never comparable figures.

A GLP-1 receptor agonist is a drug that mimics GLP-1, a gut hormone that lowers blood sugar and appetite. MOTS-c is a mitochondrial-derived peptide sold as a research compound. An RCT, or randomized controlled trial, compares a treatment with a placebo or another treatment in randomly assigned groups. Peptigrity found no study comparing 5-amino-1MQ directly with either drug.

Semaglutide's approved label and trial record are set out on Semaglutide, its compound page. The evidence behind the mitochondrial peptide, and its compounding status, are covered on MOTS-C, the compound page for MOTS-c.

How do you check what is in a 5-amino-1MQ product?

Check 3 separate results on a 5-amino-1MQ certificate: identity by mass spectrometry, purity by HPLC, and measured milligrams against the label. Purity rarely separates products, because 94% of the 183 purity results on Peptigrity reach 99% or higher, while the middle 80% of 181 measured-content results spread from 96% to 127% of the label (verified September 2026). A certificate that reports purity alone has not checked the other two.

HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) separates a sample into its components and reports what share of it is the main compound. Mass spectrometry weighs the molecules and shows whether the main compound has the expected mass. Net content is the measured number of milligrams in the container, compared with the label.

Peptigrity holds 184 certificates of analysis (COAs) for 5-amino-1MQ, tested between June 2025 and August 2026. A COA is a lab's report on one batch. For single vials, median purity is 99.72% and the recency-weighted purity index is 99.62; median measured content is 106% of the label, with 5 of 181 vials under 90% and 28 over 120%. Endotoxin was reported on 50 of the 184 certificates, and 70 were confirmed on the issuing lab's own portal (all verified September 2026). How the index weights recent results is explained on the Purity Index page. The multi-compound Mitochondrial Blend, which contains 5-amino-1MQ, has 6 certificates of its own that these figures leave out.

Two identity problems are specific to this compound. A positional isomer has the same atoms with one group in a different place, and PubChem lists one for this ion with an identical formula, 4-Amino-1-methylquinolinium | C10H11N2+ | CID 817393. A mass match alone cannot tell such isomers apart, so the lab needs a second check, such as the time the compound takes to pass through the HPLC column, called its retention time, compared with a 5-amino-1MQ reference standard. The second problem is the salt: a complete certificate names the counter-ion and states whether its milligrams count the salt or the free ion, and Peptigrity's certificate pages mark a label whose basis is not stated.

The site's salt-form explainer, TFA vs Acetate vs Amidate, shows how a counter-ion shifts the active milligrams in a peptide vial, and the same arithmetic governs 5-amino-1MQ's salt. The reasons a label and a container disagree even at high purity are set out in Peptide Net Content for peptide vials, and they apply equally to this compound.

LAL, the limulus amebocyte lysate assay, is the standard test for endotoxin. EU/mg, endotoxin units per milligram, is the unit it reports.

5-Amino-1MQ costs a median $1.36 per mg across 57 comparable offers from 47 shops with stock, ranging from $0.40 to $16.00 per mg, and 50–75 mg vials cost a median $1.19 per mg against $9.00 for 5 mg vials (verified September 2026). The 5-Amino-1MQ price comparison excludes shipping, taxes and customs, coupon codes and bulk tiers, and multi-vial kits and email-only pricing. To send a container for testing, the how to test your peptides guide explains which analyses to order and what they cost.

What is 5-amino-1MQ's legal status, and what could change it?

5-Amino-1MQ has no approval as a medicine in any country as of September 2026, and FDA has ruled it out of one compounding route: a January 2026 warning letter told a Florida outsourcing facility that 5-amino-1-methylquinolinium iodide is not eligible for compounding under section 503B, because it is not on FDA's 503B bulks list. Research-chemical shops sell it online, and athletes face a separate anti-doping question under WADA's S0 rule.

Where does 5-amino-1MQ stand with FDA and in sport?

FDA has not approved 5-amino-1MQ, its January 2026 warning letter rules the compound out of section 503B compounding, and USADA advises that an unapproved substance of this kind may fall under WADA's S0 ban. Compounding is the preparation of a drug from raw ingredients, called bulk drug substances. Section 503B of US drug law governs outsourcing facilities, which compound larger batches for clinics and hospitals, and it lets them use a bulk substance only if it appears on FDA's 503B bulks list or the drug is in shortage.

The letter, GenoGenix LLC - 718739 - 01/20/2026, found that a Boca Raton, Florida, outsourcing facility had compounded products with 5-amino-1-methylquinolinium iodide and NAD+, neither of which appears on that list, and added that neither qualifies for FDA's interim policy for substances still under evaluation. The letter concerns section 503B only; pharmacy compounding for an individual prescription falls under section 503A and FDA's separate 503A lists. 5-Amino-1MQ is sold online through the research-chemical market described in the grey market for peptides, where nobody upstream answers for a batch.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) publishes the list of substances banned in sport, and its S0 section covers non-approved substances. USADA, the US anti-doping agency, advises in Athlete Advisory: What's New on the 2025 WADA Prohibited List? that a substance approved for clinical use by no regulator, and with performance-enhancing potential, may be prohibited under S0 even when the list does not name it. 5-Amino-1MQ has no clinical approval anywhere, so athletes in tested sport can check the current WADA Prohibited List or ask USADA's Drug Reference Line.

What could change 5-amino-1MQ's status?

Approval would require a sponsor to test 5-amino-1MQ in human trials and file a marketing application, and no trial of it has published results as of September 2026. The University of Texas Medical Branch licensed its NNMT-inhibitor technology exclusively to Ridgeline Therapeutics, and NIA Small Business Showcase: Ridgeline Therapeutics, LLC describes the company's lead candidate in GLP safety studies, ahead of an investigational new drug (IND) application and first human trials. GLP here means good laboratory practice, the regulatory standard for formal safety studies, not the GLP-1 hormone. An IND is the application that lets a drug enter human trials in the US.

A Department of Defense research summary from 2023, Preclinical Advancement of Novel Mechanism-of-Action Therapeutics to Combat Type 2 Diabetes in US Veterans, names the team's most promising candidate as RLT-72848, a quinoline-derived NNMT inhibitor that reduced body weight by more than 10% and abdominal fat by over 30% in mice, licensed to Ridgeline with a patent filed on it as a new chemical entity. Peptigrity found no published human results from the program as of September 2026. A drug that comes out of it would be approved under its own name and label, and that approval would not cover the 5-amino-1MQ sold by research-chemical shops today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 5-amino-1MQ a peptide?

No. 5-Amino-1MQ is a small synthetic molecule with no amino-acid chain, and PubChem lists its active ion with the formula C10H11N2+. Peptide shops list it beside peptides because they sell to the same buyers.

Is 5-amino-1MQ taken orally or injected?

Shops sell it both ways, as freeze-dried powder in vials and as capsules or tablets. The 2018 mouse study injected it under the skin, and blood levels after oral dosing have been measured only in mice, so neither route has been characterized in people.

How long does 5-amino-1MQ take to work?

No human timeline exists. In the 2018 mouse study, the weight difference from untreated mice became statistically significant on day 6 of three daily injections, a mouse timeline at a mouse dose.

Is 5-amino-1MQ the same as NAD+ or NMN?

No. NAD+ is a coenzyme and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) is one of its precursors, while 5-amino-1MQ is an enzyme blocker that raised NAD+ 1.2- to 1.6-fold in cultured fat cells by slowing the removal of nicotinamide. Its effect on NAD+ in people has not been measured.

Can 5-amino-1MQ be combined with semaglutide or tirzepatide?

Peptigrity found no study of 5-amino-1MQ with any GLP-1 drug, in animals or people, so no interaction or safety data exist for the combination. Tell the prescriber of any GLP-1 drug about it, because the 2024 obesity study in mice found that 5-amino-1MQ lowered insulin and improved glucose tolerance, an effect never measured alongside a GLP-1 drug.

When should you talk to a clinician about 5-amino-1MQ?

Talk to a clinician before using 5-amino-1MQ if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have liver disease, or take medication for diabetes, because no published study has measured its safety or interactions in any of those situations. Seek urgent care for swelling of the face or throat, difficulty breathing, or a hot, spreading, painful injection site with fever.

The next check a buyer can run on 5-amino-1MQ happens on paper, and How to Read Peptide Lab Test Results shows where the mass, the purity and the measured milligrams sit on a lab report, which is where this compound's salt and isomer questions are settled.

This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Peptides discussed may be investigational compounds not approved by the FDA (or equivalent regulators in your jurisdiction) for human use; research peptides are sold for laboratory use and are not manufactured, tested or labelled to pharmaceutical standards. Peptigrity does not recommend doses: every dose figure above is an approved-label value, a published-trial value or a community report, and is labelled as such — a community report is not a recommendation. Self-injection carries risks of infection, allergic reaction and dosing error; signs of a serious allergic reaction, an injection-site infection with fever, severe abdominal pain, or confusion and sweating on an IGF-1 or insulin-adjacent compound are medical emergencies — call your local emergency number. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any peptide or research compound. Peptigrity is an independent review platform and does not sell, endorse, or recommend specific products or vendors.