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Not medical advice. The Atlas is not a substitute for a clinician who can examine you.

5-Amino-1MQ

NNMT Inhibitor Small Molecule

Evidence grade 1 of 5, Untested. Read how the Atlas grades evidence.

Evidence is animal and in-vitro only. The direct data come from Neelakantan et al. (Biochemical Pharmacology, 2018), where subcutaneous 5-Amino-1MQ (around 20 mg/kg/injection) reduced fat mass and adipocyte size in diet-induced obese mice without changing food intake, building on the Kraus et al. NNMT-knockdown obesity work (Nature, 2014) and a 2021 Scientific Reports mouse study combining the inhibitor with a reduced-calorie diet. No human clinical trials of 5-Amino-1MQ have been completed or, as of this writing, are established in the literature, which places the marketed 'fat loss' use at grade 1 (animal-only), not the current grade 2.

FDA
No FDA approval; investigational small molecule with only preclinical (animal and in-vitro) data; not on the FDA 503A compounding bulk list; sold gray-market for research use only.
WADA
Not prohibited

Reference only. Not medical advice.

What can go wrong

Not a peptide but a synthetic NNMT-inhibitor small molecule; no completed human trials; evidence is animal and in-vitro only; unapproved and sold gray-market as a research chemical, so purity and safety in humans are unestablished.

Not technically a peptide but grouped with them in the community, a small-molecule NNMT inhibitor that increases cellular NAD+ and may reduce fat-cell size in animal models. Rising fast in metabolic biohacking.

What people take it for

These are the reasons people give for taking it. They are not effects it has been shown to have.

  • Fat-cell metabolism (animal models)
  • NAD+ support
  • Metabolic health

How it is supposed to work

5-Amino-1MQ blocks an enzyme called NNMT, which sits inside fat cells doing two unhelpful things: it burns through the building blocks the body needs to make NAD+ (the coenzyme central to cellular energy), and it encourages the formation of new fat cells. By inhibiting NNMT, the compound raises NAD+ levels, restores a related molecule called SAM that influences gene regulation, and reduces fat-cell formation. The intriguing result in animals is "passive" fat loss: less fat without eating less and without stimulating the nervous system, alongside support for the energy and longevity pathways that NAD+ drives.

5-Amino-1MQ (5-amino-1-methylquinolinium iodide) is a small, membrane-permeable molecule, and it is worth stating plainly that it is not a peptide, despite being marketed alongside them. It is a selective inhibitor of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT). Its small-molecule nature is what lets it slip into cells and act directly on the enzyme, and it is included here because metabolic-medicine conversation increasingly groups mechanism-first compounds together regardless of chemical class.

Type
Small-molecule NNMT inhibitor
Not a peptide
Correct
Raises
NAD+ and SAM
Human trials
None
Approved
No
IND on record
No

Promising In Mice, Untested In People

5-Amino-1MQ is a case where an elegant mechanism has sprinted miles ahead of the evidence. Blocking NNMT to raise NAD+ and curb fat-cell formation is a genuinely interesting idea, and the mouse data is encouraging: fat loss without reduced food intake, better insulin sensitivity, preserved muscle. But the decisive honest fact is that there are zero human trials. As of 2026 it has no FDA approval, no Investigational New Drug application on the public record, and no registered Phase 1, 2 or 3 trial, meaning it has not even entered the regulatory pathway, which puts it well behind genuinely investigational drugs like retatrutide that are in active Phase 3. Every efficacy claim is extrapolated from cells and mice. And there is a real, unresolved safety question: NNMT is active in many cancers, and what inhibiting it does to human tumor biology is simply unknown.

Safety in detail

Human safety and efficacy are unestablished. All available data are from mice and cultured cells; there is no FDA-approved product, no established dosing in humans, and no long-term human safety record. Materials sold online are labeled for research use only and are outside regulated pharmaceutical quality controls.

  • There is no human safety data at all; everything known comes from cells and animals.
  • The central safety concern is cancer: NNMT is expressed in many tumor types, and the effect of inhibiting it on human cancer biology is unknown, so anyone with a cancer history should avoid it.
  • No drug-interaction studies have been done, despite its effects on methylation and folate-related pathways.
  • Its behavior in people with liver or kidney impairment is uncharacterized.
  • It is not approved, is not on the compounding list, and is sold only gray-market with the usual quality risks.

Children and teenagers

5-Amino-1MQ is a metabolic compound with no pediatric data, no approval and an unresolved cancer-biology question, which makes it especially inappropriate for anyone under 18. Weight and metabolic concerns in children belong with qualified specialists, not an untested gray-market molecule. There is no appropriate pediatric use.

What people get wrong

Nothing recorded here yet. There is almost certainly something people get wrong about this one, and the blank space means we have not written it down, not that the record is clean.

Who profits, and who pushes back

Nobody is named here yet, because we have not done that work on this entry. Read that as unfinished. Somebody almost certainly sells this, and somebody almost certainly disputes it. Assume both until we have checked.

With no approval and no legitimate compounding pathway, 5-Amino-1MQ’s money runs entirely through the gray market: research-chemical and supplement-adjacent vendors selling it as an oral fat-loss and NAD+ product, and longevity and metabolic clinics incorporating it into optimization programs. The mechanism-first marketing, NNMT, NAD+, sirtuins, is sophisticated and persuasive, and it sells a compound that has never been tested in a human trial.

How we got here

5-Amino-1MQ (5-amino-1-methylquinolinium) is a synthetic small-molecule inhibitor of the enzyme nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), not a peptide. Its rationale traces to Kraus et al. (Nature, 2014) at Beth Israel Deaconess and Harvard, who showed that knocking down NNMT in fat and liver protected mice from diet-induced obesity. Medicinal chemists then designed membrane-permeable quinolinium inhibitors to reproduce that effect pharmacologically, with 5-Amino-1MQ emerging as the lead compound characterized by Neelakantan and colleagues (Biochemical Pharmacology, 2018) and covered by the 'quinoline derived small molecule inhibitors of NNMT' patents. Because it was never approved as a drug, it migrated into the fitness and biohacking market, where it is grouped informally with 'peptides' and sold gray-market as a research-use-only fat-loss chemical despite having no completed human trials.

Interest in NNMT grew from work, notably a 2014 Nature study, showing the enzyme drives fat-tissue remodeling and tracks with obesity. 5-Amino-1MQ was identified as an inhibitor, and a 2019 study showed it reduced adiposity in obese mice without cutting food intake, an eye-catching result. The biohacking and metabolic-optimization world adopted it as a fat-loss and NAD+ compound, and it spread through gray-market and supplement channels. As of 2026, despite years of interest, it has still not entered human clinical testing.

  1. 2014A Nature study links NNMT to fat-tissue remodeling and obesity, establishing the target.
  2. 2019A study shows 5-Amino-1MQ reduces adiposity in obese mice without reducing food intake.
  3. 2020sBiohacking and metabolic communities adopt it for fat loss and NAD+ support.
  4. 2026Still no FDA approval, no IND and no registered human trial.

The numbers behind the grade

Type
NNMT inhibitor (small molecule)
Peptide
No
Evidence
Mouse only
Human trials
None
Approved
No
Key risk
Cancer-biology unknown

The people taking it

A buzzy biohacker fat-loss and NAD+ compound with sophisticated mechanism-first marketing, whose reputation far exceeds its nonexistent human evidence.

5-Amino-1MQ’s users are metabolic and longevity-focused: people frustrated by stubborn fat and slowed metabolism, NAD+ and anti-aging biohackers, and performance users interested in its muscle and regeneration signals. Many are drawn from the same crowd pursuing NMN, NR and caloric-restriction-mimetic strategies, and the appeal is the mechanism story rather than any proven human benefit.

Used gray-market as an oral fat-loss, NAD+ and longevity compound, entirely on the strength of animal data. Not approved and never tested in humans.

Set against the alternatives

Against NAD+ supplements like NMN and NR, 5-Amino-1MQ raises NAD+ by a different route, sparing the precursor and restoring SAM rather than simply adding more precursor, which is mechanistically complementary, but there is no human data to claim it is superior, and cross-comparisons between its mouse data and human supplement trials are unreliable. Against GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, it is entirely different, a passive metabolic effect rather than appetite suppression, but those drugs have vast human evidence while this has none. And against stimulant fat-burners, its non-stimulant, passive mechanism is appealing in theory, yet unproven in people. Its strength is a distinctive mechanism; its defining weakness is the complete absence of human evidence.

What we do not know

  • Whether the mouse fat-loss and NAD+ effects occur in humans at all, which no trial has tested.
  • What NNMT inhibition does to human cancer biology, the key safety unknown.
  • Whether it offers any real advantage over NMN or NR for raising NAD+.
  • Whether it will ever enter genuine clinical development.

What could change

Human trialsWhether genuine clinical testing finally begins is the key question.NAD+ and longevityContinued interest in NNMT inhibition within the broader NAD+ field.Cancer-biology clarityResolving how NNMT inhibition affects tumor biology is essential before broad use.Persistent gray marketOngoing marketing despite the absence of human evidence.

The market for this

What follows describes how this is bought and sold. It is not a buying guide and it is not an endorsement of any seller.

Available only as gray-market research material or supplement-adjacent product, with no legitimate clinical or compounding route. Given the total absence of human data and the cancer-biology uncertainty, it is a speculative purchase; for metabolic goals, evidence-based options exist, and anyone with a cancer history should avoid it outright.

Inexpensive as an oral gray-market or supplement-adjacent product. The low price reflects an untested compound rather than a validated therapy, and there is no quality assurance behind most material.

Synthesized overseas, predominantly in China, and sold as oral research or supplement material with no quality assurance; a certificate of analysis is the only check, and it cannot substitute for the human testing the compound lacks.

China and research vendorsThe dominant source, supplying 5-Amino-1MQ as oral research-use-only or supplement-adjacent material worldwide.No compounding pathwayIt is not on the FDA bulk-substance list, so there is no legitimate compounding route in US practice.Clinic and biohacking channelLongevity and metabolic clinics and biohacking communities distribute and promote it off-label.

What this entry does not yet cover

What follows is unfinished work on our side, not a finding about 5-Amino-1MQ.

Nothing outstanding on this one.

Sources

The studies that matter

  • Kraus et al, Nature2014

    Established that NNMT drives epigenetic remodeling in fat tissue and links high NNMT activity to obesity, the foundational rationale for inhibiting it.

  • Neelakantan et al, Nature Communications2019

    In diet-induced obese mice, 5-Amino-1MQ reduced body weight and fat mass and improved insulin sensitivity and lipids, notably without reducing food intake.

  • Muscle regeneration studies2020s

    NNMT inhibition increased muscle stem-cell proliferation and substantially improved muscle force in animal regeneration models.

  • Human efficacy and safetynone

    No human trials of 5-Amino-1MQ have been conducted or registered; there is no published human efficacy or safety data.