AOD-9604 vs 5-Amino-1MQ: Mechanism, Evidence, FDA Status, Cost, and Which One Fits

Human growth hormone is a protein of 191 amino acids. AOD-9604 is a synthetic copy of the last fifteen, positions 177 to 191, with a tyrosine added at the front, making a 16-amino-acid peptide held together by one disulphide bridge. It is the molecule sold online as "hGH fragment 176-191". AOD stands for Anti-Obesity Drug; it came out of Monash University in Melbourne and was developed in the late 1990s by Metabolic Pharmaceuticals as an oral obesity treatment. It is not growth hormone and not a secretagogue: cell work reports it does not bind the growth hormone receptor, and IGF-1 did not change in the human trials. The full reference is at what is AOD-9604.

• The "lipolytic domain" idea. A 2000 paper in Hormone Research proposed that growth hormone's effect on fat lives in its tail end, separable from its growth and blood-sugar effects.
• Beta-3 adrenergic receptors. A 2001 paper in Endocrinology reported reduced weight gain and more beta-3 receptors in the fat of obese mice, with no effect in mice lacking that receptor.
• Fat oxidation without a glucose rise. A 2001 paper in the International Journal of Obesity reported increased fat oxidation and plasma glycerol in obese mice, without growth hormone's rise in blood glucose.

The FDA's 2024 review noted that the molecular target has never been identified and that the animal studies did not establish a dose-response relationship.

Six randomised, placebo-controlled trials, run in Australia between roughly 2001 and 2007, enrolling close to 900 people. The largest, OPTIONS, gave 536 adults with obesity oral AOD-9604 or placebo daily for 24 weeks alongside a supervised diet and exercise program and did not find statistically significant weight loss versus placebo; the company ended development for obesity in February 2007. What the trials did establish is mostly safety: no change in IGF-1, no impairment of glucose tolerance, no antibodies detected in the subjects tested, and no serious adverse event judged related to treatment. Every trial was oral or intravenous, not the subcutaneous injection that is prescribed.

5-Amino-1MQ is short for 5-amino-1-methylquinolinium. It is a small synthetic molecule, not a peptide: there is no chain of amino acids in it, just a two-ring quinolinium core with a methyl group and an amino group attached. It came from a medicinal chemistry programme at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, which screened compounds against the enzyme nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) in a 2017 Journal of Medicinal Chemistry paper. The reason anyone looked was a 2014 paper in Nature reporting that knocking NNMT down protected mice against diet-induced obesity. The full reference is at what is 5-Amino-1MQ, and the chemistry question is answered in is 5-Amino-1MQ a peptide.

• Blocking NNMT. NNMT takes nicotinamide, the form of vitamin B3 cells recycle into NAD+, and attaches a methyl group from SAM, so the product is excreted rather than reused. Blocking it is proposed to keep both the NAD+ precursor and SAM in the cell.
• NAD+ and SAM in cultured fat cells. A 2018 paper in Biochemical Pharmacology reported higher intracellular NAD+ and SAM and less fat-building in cultured adipocytes. This is the origin of the "raises NAD+" description, and it is a cell-culture result.
• Weight and fat in obese mice. The same 2018 work reported lower body weight and white fat mass in diet-induced obese mice with food intake unchanged. A 2024 paper in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism dosed it once daily for 28 days and reported limited fat gain and improved glucose tolerance in obese mice, plus distribution to fat, muscle and liver after subcutaneous injection.

None. There are no human trials of any design, and as of September 2026 none registered under its name. The only human data is about the target, not the drug: a 2015 Diabetologia study reported roughly twofold higher NNMT expression in the fat tissue of people with type 2 diabetes. That is a reason to study the compound in people, not evidence that it works in them.

AOD-9604 suits someone who wants a fat-metabolism signal that leaves appetite and the growth hormone axis alone, who is already training and eating well, and who values having some human safety data even though the efficacy trials were negative. Prescribers typically describe it as support for a program that is already working. It is also part of the SHRED and PHYSIQ blends, which pair it with growth hormone secretagogues.

5-Amino-1MQ suits someone whose interest is fat-cell metabolism or the NAD+ angle, with diet and activity already in place, and who is comfortable with a compound that has only mouse and cell evidence. Both of its main mouse studies paired it with a lifestyle change and reported the combination doing more than either alone. Its dose per injection is half that of AOD-9604, because the vial is half the concentration.

They act on different targets, and some physicians combine them. No Pepti product contains both: AOD-9604 is in SHRED and PHYSIQ, 5-Amino-1MQ is in FUSION. No study has tested the combination, so it means two unknowns at once. Most people start with one and add the second only if there is a reason to. The general rules are in can you take two peptides together.