What it is
5-Amino-1MQ is not a peptide. It is a small, simple chemical. It is built on a ring shape called quinoline. This site lists it because people often talk about it along with peptides.
It was made to block an enzyme called NNMT. (An enzyme is a protein that speeds up a chemical job in the body.) NNMT is more active in the fat and liver of obese mice.
NNMT uses up two molecules that cells need for energy and upkeep. Researchers thought blocking it might leave more of these molecules for the cell. That might change how fat cells store and burn energy. So far, 5-Amino-1MQ has only been tested on cells in a dish and in mice. It has never been tested in a registered human trial. No medicine with it is approved.
5-Amino-1MQ (5-amino-1-methylquinolin-1-ium, C10H11N2+, 159.21 g/mol as the cation) is a permanently charged N-methylated quinolinium. It inhibits nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), a cytosolic enzyme that transfers a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) to nicotinamide, producing 1-methylnicotinamide (1-MNA) and S-adenosylhomocysteine. By consuming nicotinamide and SAM, NNMT is proposed to limit NAD+ salvage and cellular methylation capacity in adipocytes.
Docking studies predict that methylquinoliniums bind the nicotinamide substrate site. Neelakantan et al. (2018) reported a biochemical IC50 of about 1 µM for 5-Amino-1MQ, an EC50 of 2.3 µM for lowering 1-MNA in adipocytes, and no inhibition of the related SAM-dependent methyltransferases DNMT1 and PRMT3, catechol-O-methyltransferase, or the NAD+ salvage enzymes NAMPT and SIRT1 at the concentrations tested. Despite its permanent charge, it showed high permeability in parallel artificial membrane and Caco-2 assays. In cultured adipocytes it lowered 1-MNA, raised NAD+ and SAM, and suppressed lipogenesis.
No human pharmacokinetic, metabolism or toxicology data have been published.
Who made it and when
The compound came from Stanley Watowich’s lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. His team worked with chemists at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Their interest began with a 2014 study in the journal Nature. In that study, mice with NNMT switched off in fat and liver were protected from gaining weight on a fatty diet.
In 2017, the Texas team compared several groups of possible NNMT blockers. One group, called quinoliniums, worked best. In 2018, they reported that 5-Amino-1MQ cut fat in obese mice.
The University of Texas holds a patent on related compounds. But the patent’s approved wording does not cover 5-Amino-1MQ itself. Watowich later started a company called Ridgeline Therapeutics. Its scientists published more mouse studies on the compound in 2024. No company has registered a human trial.
Kraus et al. (Nature 2014) reported that NNMT expression is increased in white adipose tissue and liver of obese and diabetic mice, and that Nnmt knockdown there protected against diet-induced obesity by raising energy expenditure, with higher adipose SAM and NAD+ and effects on histone methylation, polyamine flux and SIRT1 signalling.
Neelakantan et al. (J Med Chem 2017) screened N-methylated quinolinium, isoquinolinium, pyridinium and benzimidazolium or benzothiazolium analogues and identified quinoliniums as the preferred scaffold (IC50 around 1 µM). The 2018 Biochemical Pharmacology paper characterised the permeability, selectivity and in-vivo effect of 5-Amino-1MQ. The University of Texas System holds US 11,401,243 (inventors Watowich, Neelakantan, Wang and McHardy; priority 2017-03-30); its specification describes 5-Amino-1MQ, but claim 1 requires two or more non-hydrogen substituents at ring positions 5 to 8, which on its wording excludes the singly substituted 5-Amino-1MQ. Later work from the group covered aged-muscle regeneration (2019), combination with a low-fat diet (2022) and, in 2024, mouse studies from Ridgeline Therapeutics (Houston), a company Watowich founded. Whether Ridgeline holds a licence or plans human studies of 5-Amino-1MQ could not be verified; no IND for it is public.
What the data say
Obese mice on a high-fat diet got injections of 5-Amino-1MQ for 11 days. They lost about 5% of their weight. Untreated mice kept gaining a little. In the treated mice, fat tissue shrank by about a third. Their fat cells got smaller. Their blood cholesterol went down. They did not eat any less.
Other mouse studies from the same group found more:
- Combined with a low-fat diet, weight went back to normal faster.
- Old mice given an NNMT blocker healed muscle injuries better.
- In 2024, obese mice had less fat in the liver and handled blood sugar better.
All of this comes from animals and cells. It all comes from one research group and its company. No human study of any kind has been published or registered. So nothing is known about its effects, dose or safety in people.
Animal data: in diet-induced obese mice on a high-fat diet (n=9 per group), subcutaneous 5-Amino-1MQ three times daily for 11 days produced a 2.0 ± 0.6 g loss (about 5.1% of body weight) versus a 0.6 ± 0.4 g gain (about 1.4%) in controls. White adipose mass fell by about 35% (P under 0.001), adipocyte size by over 30% and plasma total cholesterol by about 30% (both P under 0.05), with no change in food intake and no observable adverse effects (Neelakantan et al., 2018).
Dimet-Wiley et al. (Sci Rep 2022) reported that 5-Amino-1MQ plus a switch to a low-fat diet normalised adiposity and body weight to lean-control levels faster than the diet switch alone. Neelakantan et al. (2019) reported that an NNMT inhibitor (5 or 10 mg/kg), not named in the abstract, roughly doubled regenerating myofibre area and raised peak torque about 70% after injury in 24-month-old mice. Babula et al. (Diabetes Obes Metab 2024; Ridgeline Therapeutics authors) reported that 28 days of once-daily dosing dose-dependently limited weight and fat gain, improved insulin sensitivity and reduced liver steatosis in obese mice, and gave mouse pharmacokinetic data.
Human data: none. ClinicalTrials.gov lists no study of 5-Amino-1MQ.
Regulatory picture
There are three separate things to know.
Approval: The FDA and other regulators have not approved any medicine with 5-Amino-1MQ. No company has announced a human trial.
Compounding: Compounding means a pharmacy mixes a drug itself. 5-Amino-1MQ is not on any FDA compounding list. It is not on the approved ingredients list. It is not in any of the three groups of ingredients put forward for review. So it has never been checked for this use.
Enforcement: In January 2026 the FDA sent a warning letter to a compounding facility. It said the facility made products with 5-Amino-1MQ, which is not allowed as a compounding ingredient.
It is sold online as a “research chemical.” That does not mean anyone has checked if it is safe for people.
Approval: none. No IND-stage programme, NDA or foreign marketing authorisation could be identified, and ClinicalTrials.gov has no registered study.
Compounding: 5-Amino-1MQ is not on the 503A bulks list in 21 CFR 216.23 and does not appear in Category 1, 2 or 3 of FDA’s list of substances nominated under section 503A (updated 2026-05-14), nor on FDA’s page of bulk drug substances that may present significant safety risks (updated 2026-04-22). It is not the active ingredient of any FDA-approved drug. Because it has not been evaluated under any of these pathways, this article records compounding status as unknown.
Enforcement: FDA’s 2026-01-20 warning letter to GenoGenix LLC, a 503B outsourcing facility, states that it “compounded drug products using bulk drug substances that are not eligible for the use in compounding under section 503B, including 5-amino-1-methylquinolinium iodide (5-Amino-1MQ)” and NAD+.
Sport: no named listing of 5-Amino-1MQ on the WADA Prohibited List was verified for this article.
