Metabolic / NAD+
Prepared by the ezGLP team. Sources last checked . Profile reviewed .
Also known as 5-Amino-1-methylquinolinium, 5A1MQ, 5-Amino-1MQ iodide
Routes represented in the knowledgebase: Subcutaneous (SubQ).
5-Amino-1MQ is listed in the ezGLP knowledgebase under Metabolic / NAD+. Evidence and regulatory status can vary by formulation, route, and jurisdiction.
5-Amino-1MQ (5-amino-1-methylquinolinium, often supplied as the iodide salt) is a small synthetic molecule, not a peptide, that inhibits nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT). NNMT is a cytosolic enzyme abundant in fat and liver that methylates nicotinamide, consuming a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine and diverting nicotinamide away from NAD+ salvage. Blocking it is proposed to raise intracellular NAD+ and S-adenosylmethionine, restrain fat storage and shift cells toward energy expenditure. The compound came out of a medicinal-chemistry programme at the University of Texas Medical Branch led by Stanley Watowich, and it is marketed online and by some compounding pharmacies as a metabolic or NAD+ supplement despite having no approved use.
All published efficacy evidence is preclinical and comes largely from the inventors and the company formed to commercialise the work, Ridgeline Therapeutics. A 2018 study in Biochemical Pharmacology reported that methylquinolinium NNMT inhibitors reduced body weight, white fat mass and plasma cholesterol in diet-induced obese mice without changing food intake. Later mouse studies from the same group described improved glucose tolerance, less hepatic steatosis and additive effects with a reduced-calorie diet, as well as activation of muscle stem cells in aged animals. No clinical trial results, pharmacokinetic data in humans or human safety studies had been published in the indexed literature at the time of this review, so effects and risks in people are unknown.
5-Amino-1MQ is not approved by the FDA, the EMA or any other regulator, and it is not a component of any approved drug or a dietary ingredient with a recognised regulatory status. In the United States that means it cannot lawfully be compounded under section 503A unless it appears on the FDA's list of permitted bulk drug substances, and it does not; products sold as capsules or injectable solutions are therefore unapproved drugs when marketed for human use, and vials labelled as research chemicals fall into the same position once they are sold with dosing instructions. The FDA's general guidance on compounded drugs notes that such products have not been reviewed for safety, effectiveness or quality before reaching the market.
There is no product label, pharmacopoeial monograph or regulator-reviewed stability information for 5-Amino-1MQ, so storage and in-use guidance comes only from the vendor or compounding pharmacy that supplied it. Capsules and powders are usually described as room-temperature products protected from moisture and light, and compounded solutions carry the pharmacy's beyond-use date. Because the salt form, purity and even the identity of material sold under this name are unverified, an inventory record that transcribes the supplier, lot or batch identifier, stated strength, salt form and route is the only anchor a dose log has. Entries that record the compound name alone cannot be reconciled against the mouse literature, which used defined purity and dosing that consumer products do not replicate.
Serious or important: potential immunogenicity, aggregation, impurity, or product-quality risks.
A dependable route-specific human interaction and side-effect profile is not established; this is not evidence of no risk.
Safety evidence sourceThese are general, pairwise evidence notes. Green identifies the potential-synergy category, while Lv3/Lv2/Lv1 communicates evidence strength; it does not guarantee benefit or cancel a safety warning.
NAD+ and BPC-157 are proposed as complementary for cellular-energy and tissue-repair goals, but no direct animal or human combination study has established synergy or safety.
Interaction evidence sourceNAD+ evidence reviewFDA BPC-157 safety assessmentSS-31 plus the NAD+ precursor NMN produced complementary cardiac effects in aged mice, providing an indirect rationale for interest in SS-31 with NAD+.
Interaction evidence sourceNAD+ evidence reviewElamipretide labelNNMT inhibition by 5-Amino-1MQ-related compounds increased intracellular NAD+ in preclinical work, creating an indirect combination hypothesis.
Interaction evidence source5-Amino-1MQ preclinical studyNAD+ evidence reviewNo. 5-Amino-1MQ has not been approved by any regulator, and no human clinical trial results have appeared in the indexed literature. The evidence base is a series of mouse studies published between 2018 and 2024, most of them by the compound's inventors at the University of Texas Medical Branch and by Ridgeline Therapeutics, which is developing NNMT inhibitors commercially. Human pharmacokinetics, effective exposure and safety are unknown.
In cultured adipocytes and mice, inhibiting NNMT with 5-Amino-1MQ lowered the enzyme's product 1-methylnicotinamide and increased intracellular NAD+ and S-adenosylmethionine, because nicotinamide that would have been methylated remains available for NAD+ salvage. Whether the same shift occurs in human tissue at achievable exposures has not been measured, so claims that it functions as an NAD+ booster in people are extrapolated from animal biochemistry.
Only in mice so far. Diet-induced obese mice given NNMT inhibitors lost body weight and white fat and had lower cholesterol without eating less, and a 2024 study reported dose-dependent limits on weight gain, better glucose tolerance and less fatty liver. These are rodent findings from the developers; no randomised trial in humans has been published, and mouse fat biology and drug metabolism differ enough that the results cannot be assumed to transfer.
It is not an approved drug, not a component of an approved drug, and not on the FDA's list of bulk substances permitted for compounding under section 503A, so compounded 5-Amino-1MQ products are unapproved drugs in the United States. Vendors sell it as a research chemical, which does not change its status once it is marketed for human use. Regulatory positions in the EU, UK and Australia are similar because no marketing authorisation exists anywhere.
Summarised from published literature for reference only, with citations to the source. Evidence is graded as reported and is not a recommendation to combine, dose, or use any compound.
For personal tracking and education only. Not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and not a medical device. Peptides may be prescription-only or unapproved where you live. Consult a licensed healthcare professional.
