Adipotide
Adipotide produced dramatic fat loss in monkeys and damaged their kidneys at the same doses. That is the whole story, and it is why development stopped. This page covers status and risk only.
- Legal lane: not approved anywhere. No compounding route. Sold as a research chemical.
- Evidence grade: D
- Human trials: no published results
- Key finding: dose-dependent kidney toxicity in primates
What it is
Adipotide is a two-part engineered peptide. One part homes in on prohibitin, a protein concentrated on the blood vessels that feed white fat. The other part kills whatever cell it is delivered into. The design starves fat tissue of its blood supply, and the fat cells die behind it.
What the evidence shows
- In obese rhesus monkeys, 28 days of treatment produced roughly 11% body weight loss, with reductions in waist circumference and abdominal fat.
- The same study documented dose-dependent kidney toxicity: raised creatinine and BUN, protein in the urine, and changes visible on kidney tissue under a microscope.
- Kidney function recovered at least partly after treatment stopped in those animals. Whether that holds in people, and over what timeframe, is unknown.
- No dose has been identified that separates the fat loss from the kidney damage. That is the unsolved problem, not a detail.
The reason for the kidney effect is built into the mechanism: prohibitin is also present on kidney blood vessels, so the targeting is not as selective as the design intends.
Human status
A Phase 1 oncology trial was announced in 2012. No results were ever published, and there is no active development program, no IND and no registered trial. Adipotide has never been shown to be safe in a human being.
Dosing
We do not publish a protocol for this compound. There is no human dose, and the animal doses that produced fat loss are the same ones that damaged kidneys. The mechanism also destroys tissue permanently, so an adverse outcome cannot be undone by stopping.