What 5-Amino-1MQ is
5-Amino-1MQ is the odd one out on this page: a small-molecule methylquinolinium, not a peptide. It inhibits NNMT, an enzyme that drains cellular NAD+ precursors and is overactive in fat tissue, which is why rodent studies showing fat-mass loss and muscle-quality improvements made it a community favorite for metabolic stacks. All of that evidence is preclinical.
Most community use is oral capsules, where it shows up alongside GLP-1 protocols; vials for injection exist but are the minority form. It appears in the PTDS testing dataset because vendors sell both forms and purity questions apply either way.
What we do not know
- There are no human trials of any kind. Every result is mouse or cell culture.
- No human pharmacokinetics, so oral bioavailability and dosing in people are entirely unstudied.
- NNMT inhibition is being pursued as a drug target by several groups; none has published human outcome data.
Reconstitution math
Concentration is everything: the same 50 mg vial gives a different draw for every amount of bacteriostatic water you add. The table uses the common 2 mL setup for each vial size, which puts every unit on a U-100 insulin syringe at 250 mcg for the default vial. Dashes mark draws too small to measure or larger than the syringe.
| Vial | BAC water | Concentration | 25 mg | 50 mg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 mg | 2 mL | 25 mg/mL | 100 u | - |
| 100 mg | 2 mL | 50 mg/mL | 50 u | 100 u |
Dosing and protocol
Community protocol: 50 to 150 mg daily, usually oral capsules; injectable use runs 25 to 50 mg.
Oral community dosing runs 50 to 150 mg daily. For the injectable form, 25 to 50 mg subcutaneously daily is the common pattern; on a 50 mg vial with 2 mL of water, 25 mg is a full 1 mL draw, so injectable users often reconstitute with less water.
Pharmacokinetics
No curve is shown, on purpose.
5-Amino-1MQ has no published human pharmacokinetics by any route; the entire evidence base is cell and rodent work on NNMT inhibition. There is nothing to plot.
How it is thought to work
Not a peptide but a small molecule: an inhibitor of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase. Blocking NNMT raises nicotinamide and NAD+ availability in adipose tissue, which in mice shifts fat metabolism.
What the evidence supports
This table grades how well each outcome has been studied in humans, not how well 5-Amino-1MQ works. A strong grade means the question was asked properly, and the answer may still have been negative. Nothing here is inherited from a drug class, a close analog, or the parent molecule of a fragment.
| Outcome | Strongest published evidence |
|---|---|
| Fat mass reduction | Animal only |
| Muscle function in aged animals | Animal only |
| NNMT inhibition | Mechanistic only |
| Any outcome in humans | No data |
Storage and handling
Lyophilized vials keep best cold, dark, and dry; refrigeration is the community default and freezing lyophilized powder is common for long holds. After reconstitution, refrigerate at 2 to 8 C, do not freeze the solution, and date the vial. Bacteriostatic water's preservative keeps multi-dose use practical for about 28 days by USP convention, though our 120-day stability study found the preservative itself outlasts that window.
Got a certificate of analysis with your vial? Run it through our COA Reader: it reads the report in plain English, checks purity and mass against the label claim, and links the testing lab’s own verification page. Our guide to reading a COA explains what the numbers do and do not tell you.
Sources
- Neelakantan et al., Small-molecule NNMT inhibitors increase fatty-acid oxidation, Biochem Pharmacol 2018
- Dimet-Wiley et al., NNMT inhibition in aged muscle function, J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle 2024