5-Amino-1MQ Dosage: Four Mouse Studies, Zero Human Trials
5-Amino-1MQ is sold in the same catalogues as research peptides, but chemically it is not one: it is a single small aromatic molecule that blocks the enzyme NNMT. Every efficacy result behind it comes from diet-induced obese mice, across four studies published between 2014 and 2024, and every one of those studies was run by the university lab and the company developing it as a drug. No human has been given 5-amino-1MQ in a registered trial.
Reviewed by the PepGuard team · Last reviewed Jul 28, 2026
Small-molecule NNMT enzyme inhibitor (1-methylquinolin-1-ium-5-amine, C10H11N2+, MW 159) — not a peptide · also written 5-amino-1-methylquinolinium, 5A1MQ, NNMT inhibitor
Photo: National Library of Medicine / UnsplashIt’s sold as a peptide. It isn’t one.
5-Amino-1MQ shows up in research-peptide catalogues, gets a “reconstitution calculator” next to the actual peptides, and is described in the same “subcutaneous, cycle, protocol” language. Chemically it has nothing in common with a peptide. Its full name is 5-amino-1-methylquinolinium: a single small aromatic molecule — a methylated quinoline ring carrying one amine group, molecular weight about 159 (PubChem CID 950107). A peptide is a chain of amino acids. This is one ring.
What it does have is a clear mechanism. It blocks an enzyme called nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT). In 2014, a Nature paper showed that knocking down NNMT in the fat and liver of obese mice protected them from diet-induced obesity by raising cellular energy expenditure. That finding turned NNMT into a drug target, and 5-amino-1MQ is the small molecule built to hit it. The catch is the same one that applies to most of this site: the mechanism is interesting, the human evidence is absent, and the gap between those two things is where the marketing lives.
The numbers are mouse doses. There is no human one.
| What's cited | Range |
|---|---|
| Neelakantan 2018 — 11-day diet-induced obese mouse study (n=9) | 20 mg/kg per subcutaneous injection, 3x daily (~34 mg/kg/day) |
| Babula 2024 — 28-day diet-induced obese mouse study | Once-daily dosing; IV, oral, and subcutaneous pharmacokinetics characterised in mice |
| Cultured human/mouse adipocytes (in vitro) | 30-60 µM in cell culture medium |
| Validated human dose | None — no person has been dosed in a registered study |
| Oral capsule vs. subcutaneous injection | Both are sold; neither format has a human efficacy or safety study behind it |
There is no human dose of 5-amino-1MQ, because no human study has ever established one. The figures below are the mouse protocols from the published papers. Vendors sell 50 mg oral capsules and injectable reconstituted vials, often with a 'dosage calculator', but every one of those numbers is extrapolated from rodent work by people selling the product — not from a trial in people.
Everything known about whether it works, in four papers.
Kraus et al., Nature (2014). The origin. Researchers knocked down NNMT in the white fat and liver of obese mice using antisense oligonucleotides — a genetic tool, not a drug — and the mice were protected from diet-induced obesity, with higher energy expenditure and raised adipose NAD+ and SAM. This is the paper every 5-amino-1MQ product page is ultimately leaning on, and it never tested 5-amino-1MQ.
Neelakantan et al., Biochemical Pharmacology (2018). The first time the compound itself was put into an animal. Nine obese mice per group, 11 days, 20 mg/kg subcutaneously three times a day. Result: about a 5.1% drop in body weight from baseline, roughly a 35% reduction in one white-fat depot, more than 30% smaller fat cells, lower plasma cholesterol, and no change in food intake. In cultured fat cells, 30-60 µM cut lipogenesis by 50-70%.
Dimet-Wiley et al., Scientific Reports (2022). 5-amino-1-methylquinolinium plus a switch to a low-fat diet normalised obese mice to age-matched lean animals faster than the diet switch alone, and shifted their gut microbiome. The authors disclose that the lab’s principal investigator founded — and co-authors were employed by — Ridgeline Therapeutics, the company developing the compound.
Babula et al., Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (2024). The most recent and longest: 28 days in obese mice, once daily, plus a pharmacokinetic study of intravenous, oral, and subcutaneous dosing. It dose-dependently limited weight and fat gain, improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, and reduced liver fat, ALT and AST. All five authors are from Ridgeline Therapeutics or its founder’s university lab.
Four studies, eight years, one direction of effect, one research group, one species. That is a real preclinical signal. It is also the complete list.
Almost every row here says “not studied”.
That is the honest answer for a compound no person has been dosed with in a controlled trial.
| Signal | Frequency | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Adverse effects in the mouse studies | rarely reported | Neelakantan 2018 stated that dosing diet-induced obese mice did not affect total food intake or produce 'any observable adverse effects' over 11 days. That is a short study in one species, not a safety profile. |
| Human tolerability and safety | unknown / not studied | No controlled human study of 5-amino-1MQ has been conducted, so there is no clinical adverse-event data, no dose-limiting toxicity, and no drug-interaction information for people. |
| Consequences of chronic systemic NNMT inhibition | unknown / not studied | NNMT is broadly expressed (liver, adipose, kidney) and its activity has context-dependent roles across tissues. What sustained enzyme inhibition does in a human over months or years has not been characterised in any study. |
| Product identity, purity, and dose accuracy | unknown / not studied | Material sold as '5-amino-1MQ' is not manufactured to a pharmacopoeial standard and there is no regulatory mechanism confirming a vial or capsule contains what the label says, at the stated amount. |
It falls outside both the drug and the peptide-compounding systems.
5-Amino-1MQ has never been approved by the FDA as a drug, and no investigational new drug (IND) application for it appears in any public record. A search of ClinicalTrials.gov by compound name, full chemical name, and drug class ("NNMT inhibitor") returns zero registered studies at any phase. Because it is a small molecule and not a peptide, it was also never among the substances nominated for use in pharmacy compounding: it does not appear anywhere on the FDA's list of bulk drug substances under section 503A. That means neither the drug-approval pathway nor the compounding-exemption pathway applies to it — the vials and capsules sold online are marketed either as 'research use only' chemicals or as dietary supplements, and it has no FDA marketing authorisation in either category. The intellectual property is real (US patents 11,401,243 and 12,071,409 cover the quinoline-derived NNMT inhibitor class), but a granted patent is a claim of invention, not evidence of safety or approval.
5-Amino-1MQ is not a weight-loss drug you can compare to retatrutide
Retatrutide and the GLP-1 medicines reached the market by running large randomised human trials. 5-Amino-1MQ has never been given to a person in a registered study. Any online comparison of their 'results' is comparing human trial data to mouse data.
Every claim above, traced back.
Four primary studies, a chemical-database record, a trial-registry search, and the FDA compounding list. Click through and check them yourself.
5-Amino-1MQ questions, answered.
No. A peptide is a chain of amino acids joined by peptide bonds. 5-Amino-1MQ (5-amino-1-methylquinolinium) is a single small aromatic molecule — a methylated quinolinium ring with one amine group, molecular weight about 159. It is sold alongside research peptides and marketed with the same language, but structurally and pharmacologically it has nothing in common with one. It works by inhibiting an enzyme, nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT).
No. It has never been approved by the FDA for any indication, and there is no investigational new drug application for it in the public record. Because it is not a peptide, it was also never nominated for pharmacy compounding, so it does not appear on the FDA's section 503A bulk-substances list either. It is sold purely as a 'research chemical' or as an unapproved supplement, neither of which is an FDA authorisation.
None. A search of ClinicalTrials.gov by compound name, by full chemical name, and by drug class returns zero registered trials at any phase. Every published result — on body weight, fat mass, glucose tolerance, and liver fat — comes from diet-induced obese mice, in four studies published between 2014 and 2024. All of the efficacy studies were run by the University of Texas Medical Branch lab that discovered the compound class and by Ridgeline Therapeutics, the company founded by that lab's principal investigator to develop it.
In the 2018 study that first tested it in obese mice, the dose was 20 mg/kg per subcutaneous injection, given three times a day (about 34 mg/kg/day) for 11 days. A 2024 study used once-daily dosing over 28 days and characterised how the compound behaves after intravenous, oral, and subcutaneous administration in mice. There is no human-equivalent dose, because converting a rodent dose to a person requires clinical data that does not exist for this compound.
Nobody knows, because neither has been tested in a person. The compound was specifically designed to cross membranes well — the 2018 paper showed it had high passive and active transport in a Caco-2 cell model with no measurable efflux, which is a marker of potential oral absorption — and the 2024 study measured its pharmacokinetics after oral and subcutaneous dosing in mice. That is a reason vendors sell an oral capsule, not evidence that a particular human dose or route is safe or effective.
It does in obese mice. In the 2018 study, 11 days of treatment produced about a 5% drop in body weight from baseline, roughly a 35% reduction in one white-fat depot, and smaller fat cells, with no change in how much the mice ate. Whether any of that translates to a human — at what dose, with what side effects, and whether it lasts — has not been studied. Retatrutide and the GLP-1 drugs got to market by running exactly the trials 5-amino-1MQ has never had.
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