A practical reference on hGH fragment: what it is, how it behaves, what the literature reports, and where the honest uncertainties sit.
This page was last updated on 2025-10-18 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
AOD9604 is a synthetic peptide modeled on the C-terminal region of human growth hormone. It corresponds to a short sequence near the end of the 191-amino-acid hormone, often described as residues 176–191 or a related fragment. Researchers designed it to separate metabolic effects from the growth-promoting actions of full-length growth hormone. Early work in the 1990s explored it as a candidate for weight and lipid disorders. It is not a naturally circulating hormone fragment produced in large amounts.
Laboratory studies have reported that AOD9604 can increase lipolysis and reduce lipid accumulation in fat cells. The precise molecular target remains uncertain, and the compound does not appear to activate the growth hormone receptor in the same way as full-length hGH. Proposed mechanisms include effects on beta-adrenergic signaling and enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis, but these pathways are not firmly established. Because most evidence comes from cell and animal models, whether the same effects occur in humans is an open question.
Clinical development of AOD9604 included trials in people with obesity, but the results did not lead to approval as a prescription medicine in major markets. Interest later shifted to research settings and to unapproved products marketed for body composition. Regulatory agencies have questioned whether the peptide qualifies as a dietary ingredient, and some have issued warnings about its presence in supplements. Long-term human safety data are limited, and questions about efficacy, dosing, and target populations remain unresolved.
AOD-9604 is a synthetic peptide that corresponds to a short section of human growth hormone. It is commonly identified as hGH fragment 176-191 because its sequence matches residues at the C-terminal end of the hormone. The molecule contains sixteen amino acids and is made by solid-phase peptide synthesis. Researchers study it for metabolic effects rather than for the growth-promoting actions associated with full human growth hormone. Its small size distinguishes it from the complete 191-amino-acid hormone.
Several names appear in scientific and commercial settings. AOD9604 and AOD-9604 are development codes used interchangeably, while hGH fragment 176-191 describes the same region. The peptide includes a disulfide bond between two cysteine residues, which helps shape its three-dimensional structure. Different suppliers may provide acetate or other salt forms, and purity can vary. These differences matter because analytical tests and biological assays can respond to the specific form being studied.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular class | Synthetic peptide | Derived from C-terminal region of human growth hormone |
| Approximate molecular mass | About 1.8 kDa | Varies with sequence length and counterions |
| Confirmed receptor target | None established | No confirmed growth hormone receptor agonism |
| Reported in vitro activity | Lipolysis stimulation and lipogenesis inhibition | Observed mainly in adipocyte models; human relevance uncertain |
| Regulatory status | Not approved as a drug in major markets | May be treated differently across jurisdictions; not a recognized dietary ingredient in some countries |
Recently, sequence context-specific amino acid similarities have been derived that do not need substitution matrices but that rely on a library of sequence contexts instead. Using this idea, a context-specific extension of the popular BLAST program has been demonstrated to achieve a twofold sensitivity improvement for remotely related sequences over BLAST at similar speeds (CS-BLAST).
The African countries of Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and Togo, South Sudan and Uganda, along with French Guiana in South America, require all incoming passengers older than nine months to one year, to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis. Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area or has visited one recently or has transited for 12 hours in those countries: Algeria, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Initial research work was done by Alfred Champagnat at BP's Lavera Refinery in France; a small pilot plant there started operations in March 1963, and the same construction of the second pilot plant, at Grangemouth Oil Refinery in Britain, was authorized. The term SCP was coined in 1966 by Carroll L. Wilson of MIT. The "food from oil" idea became quite popular by the 1970s, with Champagnat being awarded the UNESCO Science Prize in 1976, and paraffin-fed yeast facilities being built in a number of countries. The primary use of the product was as poultry and cattle feed. The Soviets were particularly enthusiastic, opening large "BVK" (belkovo-vitaminny kontsentrat, i.e., "protein-vitamin concentrate") plants next to their oil refineries in Kstovo (1973) and Kirishi (1974). The Soviet Ministry of Microbiological Industry had eight plants of this kind by 1989. However, due to concerns of toxicity of alkanes in SCP and pressured by the environmentalist movements, the government decided to close them down, or convert to some other microbiological processes. Quorn is a range of vegetarian and vegan meat-substitutes made from Fusarium venenatum mycoprotein, sold in Europe and North America. Another type of single cell protein-based meat analogue (which does not use fungi however but rather bacteria) is Calysta. Other producers are Unibio (Denmark) Circe Biotechnologie (Austria) and String Bio (India). SCP has been argued to be a source of alternative or resilient food.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Wiederrecht GJ, Brown GM (1984). "Purification and properties of the enzymes from Drosophila melanogaster that catalyze the conversion of dihydroneopterin triphosphate to the pyrimidodiazepine precursor of the drosopterins". J. Biol. Chem. 259 (22): 14121–7. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)89865-9. PMID 6438092.
== Cytotoxics and targeted therapies == Targeted therapies are a relatively new class of cancer drugs that can work to overcome many of the adverse effects seen with the use of cytotoxics. They are divided into two groups: small molecule and antibodies. The typical widespread toxicity observed with the use of cytotoxics is due to the lack of cell specificity of the drugs allowing them to kill any rapidly dividing cell, both cancerous and normal. Targeted therapies however, are designed to affect cellular proteins or processes that are utilized by the cancer cells. This allows a high dose administration to cancer tissues with a relatively low dose to other tissues. Although the side effects are often less severe than that seen of cytotoxic chemotherapeutics, life-threatening effects can occur. Initially, the targeted therapeutics were supposed to be solely selective for one protein. Now it is clear that there is often a range of protein targets that the drug can bind. An example target for targeted therapy is the BCR-ABL1 protein produced from the Philadelphia chromosome, a genetic lesion found commonly in chronic myelogenous leukemia and in some patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This fusion protein has enzyme activity that can be inhibited by imatinib, a small molecule drug. Another example of target therapy is fludarabine cyclophosphamide (FC) lymphodepletion therapy used in patients with B cell lymphoma. This anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy is commonly known to decrease CAR-T cells which bind to the glycoprotein CD19.
== Application in surface science == Static SIMS has been used in the investigation of the initial process of oxidation where only the first two or three metal layers participate in the oxidation. Static SIMS gives a rigorous test of surface cleanliness, as it can detect species at ppm concentrations. Static SIMS is used in the investigation of the nature of adsorption (molecular or dissociative). For example, dissociative adsorption of CO on a metal surface (M) is characterized by MC+, MO+, M2O+, and M2C+ secondary ions (Fe and W), and molecular adsorption is identified by MCO+ and M2CO+ ions (Cu, Pd, Ni and Fe). Similarly, it also helps in the investigation of binding energies, chemical structure of the adsorbate, interaction between adsorbate molecules, and reactivity of adsorbate.
== Clinical trials == In June 2020, CureVac was launched for phase I trial with 280 participants. In August, CureVac was launched for phase II trials with 674 participants. In November, CureVac reported results of a Phase I-II clinical trial that CVnCoV (active ingredient zorecimeran) was well-tolerated, safe, and produced a robust immune response. In December 2020, CureVac began a Phase III clinical trial of CVnCoV with 36,500 participants. Bayer will provide clinical trial support and international logistics for the Phase III trial, and may be involved in eventual manufacturing should the vaccine prove to be safe and effective. In February 2021, the EU's CHMP started a rolling review of CVnCoV. In April 2021, the same procedure began in Switzerland. In June 2021, CureVac announced that the vaccine's efficacy against symptomatic disease is 48%. The company said the high number of variants in circulation may explain the low efficacy, but some scientists attribute the result to insufficient immunogenicity due to the use of unmodified mRNA (the Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use uracil-modified mRNA) or the dose being too low (12 μg, compared to 30 μg for Pfizer–BioNTech and 100 μg for Moderna). Neutralizing antibody levels in CureVac recipients were about the same as those in convalescence, but much lower than those seen in recipients of Pfizer–BioNTech or Moderna. The modified mRNA induces potent antibodies and other protective immune responses and circumvents the body's inflammatory reactions.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
This new configuration of these belief systems is referred by Goulart as tradição religiosa ayahuasqueira urbana amazônica ("urban-amazonian ayahuasqueiro religious tradition") or campo ayahuasqueiro brasileiro ("brazilian ayahuasqueiro field") by Labate, emerging as three main structured religions, the Santo Daime and Barquinha, in Rio Branco and the União do Vegetal (UDV) in Porto Velho, three denominations that, notwithstanding shared characteristics besides ayahuasca utilization, have several particularities regarding its practices, conceptions and processes building social legitimacy and relationships with Brazilian government, media, science and other society stances. Since the latter half of twentieth century, the ayahuasca religious expanded to other parts of Brazil and several countries in the world, notably in the West.
=== Evolution === A genetic analysis using cytochrome b, and a multigene analysis showed that the king cobra was an early offshoot of a genetic lineage giving rise to the mambas, rather than the Naja cobras. A phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA showed that specimens from Surat Thani Province and Nakhon Si Thammarat Provinces in southern Thailand form a deeply genetically divergent clade from those in northern Thailand, which grouped with specimens from Myanmar and Guangdong in southern China.
== Business groups and products == Tosoh Corporation is divided into 13 business divisions organized into five groups: Petrochemical, Chlor-Alkali, Speciality, Engineering, and a fifth group composed of support services, including logistics, construction, engineering support, and other support activities. Listed below are the five groups and their primary products:
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
AOD9604 is a synthetic peptide based on a C-terminal segment of human growth hormone. It is manufactured by chemical peptide synthesis rather than extracted from human tissue. The sequence is often described as hGH fragment 176–191 or a close variant.
It is not approved as a prescription drug in the United States or the European Union for any indication. Regulatory status can differ by country, and it is often sold as a research chemical or in unapproved products. Such products are not equivalent to an approved medicine.
In the studies reported so far, AOD9604 does not appear to act through the growth hormone receptor and has not shown the typical IGF-1 increase caused by full-length hGH. Human data are limited, so this remains an area of uncertainty. It should not be assumed to have the same effects as hGH.
AOD-9604 is a synthetic peptide fragment of human growth hormone. It corresponds to the C-terminal region known as hGH 176-191 and is studied for metabolic effects. It is not an approved therapeutic drug.