Small molecule mimetics of GHRP-6.
Expert opinion on investigational drugs
confidence
Key findings
Review of small molecule GH secretagogue mimetics of GHRP-6; no clinical or biological endpoints reported.
View source on PubMed (PMID 15989584) ↗
- Sample size
- N/A
- Population
- Not applicable (review of medicinal chemistry)
- Dosing
- N/A
- Duration
- N/A
- Route
- N/A
- Blinding
- not_reported
- Controls
- not_reported
- Drug class
- peptide
Full abstract
In 1981, Bowers reported that xenobiotic peptides, derived from the Leu- and Met- enkephalins, demonstrated novel growth hormone (GH) secretory activity. The most potent peptide reported, GH releasing peptide-6 (GHRP-6), was shown to release GH by a different pathway to the known signalling peptide, growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH). The discovery of a peptidyl GH secretagogue laid the foundation for the search for smaller, orally active mimetics of GHRP-6, as well as for its mechanism of action. This review focuses on the recent developments in the field of small molecule GH secretagogues from a medicinal chemistry perspective, and discusses various structural classes of mimetics recently reported in the literature.