5-Amino-1MQ: What You Are Actually Weighing

For laboratory research use only. Not for human or veterinary use.

5-Amino-1MQ is a small-molecule NNMT inhibitor, and it is supplied as a salt. That second fact is the one that matters most and the one least often stated, because it means the number on the label and the amount of active compound in the vial are not the same number — and the gap is larger than most people would guess.

Identity

The salt arithmetic

5-Amino-1MQ is a quaternary ammonium cation. The nitrogen in the ring carries a permanent positive charge, which means the compound cannot exist on its own — it is always paired with a negative counter-ion. In the material supplied under CAS 42464-96-0, that counter-ion is iodide.

Iodide is heavy. At 126.90 g/mol it accounts for a large share of the total:

So in practical terms:

• A 10mg vial of the iodide salt contains about 5.6mg of the 5-Amino-1MQ cation.
• A 50mg vial contains about 27.8mg.

This is not adulteration and it is not a supplier cutting corners — a permanently charged cation has to be supplied as a salt, and iodide is the standard one. But it does mean that anyone calculating a molar concentration must decide which molecular weight they are using, and say so. Using 159.21 where the material is 286.11 overstates concentration by about 80%.

Use 286.11 for weighing the supplied solid. Use 159.21 only when expressing the active species, and state which you used.

A note on the chloride form

Some catalogues list 5-Amino-1MQ as the chloride salt, which would be C₁₀H₁₁N₂·Cl at 194.66 g/mol. Chloride is much lighter than iodide, so the same nominal milligram figure would contain considerably more active cation — about 81.8% rather than 55.6%.

The two are genuinely different products and the distinction is worth confirming rather than assuming. If a certificate reports 286.11, the material is the iodide. If it reports 194.66, it is the chloride. If it reports 159.21, it is describing the cation alone and has not stated what was actually in the vial.

Brown is normal

Worth saying plainly, because it prompts more queries than anything else about this compound: 5-Amino-1MQ iodide is legitimately brown to reddish-brown.

Most of what a peptide supplier ships is a white lyophilised cake, so a brown powder reads as degraded to anyone used to that. It is not. The colour is characteristic of the material, and iodide salts commonly carry it. Judge this compound against its own reference appearance, not against a peptide.

What NNMT does, and what inhibiting it means

Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) carries out one reaction: it takes a methyl group from S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) and attaches it to nicotinamide, producing 1-methylnicotinamide and S-adenosylhomocysteine.

That single reaction sits at the intersection of two separate metabolic systems, which is why the enzyme attracts research attention out of proportion to its simplicity.

• NAD⁺ supply. Nicotinamide is a precursor in the NAD⁺ salvage pathway. Methylating it removes it from that pathway — once methylated, it cannot be salvaged back to NAD⁺.
• Methyl-group economy. SAM is the cell's universal methyl donor, shared with DNA and histone methylation. NNMT activity consumes SAM, so it competes with every other methylation reaction for the same pool.

An NNMT inhibitor is therefore a tool for probing both at once, which is also why interpreting results from one is not straightforward.

5-Amino-1MQ is a methylquinolinium — structurally close to 1-methylnicotinamide, the methylated pyridinium the enzyme produces. That resemblance is the basis of the inhibition: it occupies the site by looking like the reaction's own product.

It is not a peptide

Almost everything else in this catalogue is peptide, and none of the peptide handling rules apply here. 5-Amino-1MQ is a single small aromatic molecule with no chain, no folding and no secondary structure. It cannot be denatured, it is not damaged by agitation, and it carries none of the shear sensitivity that makes peptide handling careful work.

Two things do matter. It is supplied soluble in DMSO rather than water, so aqueous work needs a stock in DMSO and attention to the final solvent fraction. And as a permanently charged quaternary cation, membrane permeability is a real experimental variable rather than an assumption — charged species do not cross lipid bilayers freely.

Store it sealed, dry, cool and out of light. Let a cold vial reach room temperature before opening.

What to check on the certificate

• Which salt. 286.11 for iodide, 194.66 for chloride. This determines every concentration you calculate.
• CAS number. 42464-96-0 for the iodide.
• Purity by HPLC, method named, measured on that batch.
• Appearance, against the brown to reddish-brown reference — not against a white peptide.

Pioneer publishes the certificate for each tested batch in full, with its verification key, in the COA library. See also how to read a COA and what a purity figure means.

What Pioneer supplies

5-Amino-1MQ is stocked in 10mg and 50mg vials, tested by an independent laboratory, with the batch certificate available on request. It ships from the UK with same-day dispatch on orders before 2pm.

Quality comes first

With a compound where nearly half the mass in the vial is counter-ion, the certificate is the only thing that tells you what you are actually weighing. Pioneer compounds are tested by an independent laboratory, and the certificate for each tested batch is published in full with its verification key in the COA library, so you can check the documentation before it reaches your bench rather than after. The certificate for your batch is also available on request.

Pioneer Research Peptides — UK supplier of research peptides for laboratory use. Independently tested by batch, certificates published with verification keys at the COA library.

For laboratory research use only — not for human consumption. 18+.