Compare prices and buy AICAR from 6 research peptide vendors - also called suppliers or sources. Updated daily.
A cell-permeable adenosine analog (5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside, also called acadesine, CAS 2627-69-2), not a peptide. Cells phosphorylate it to ZMP, an AMP mimetic that activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), and in cell and animal studies it shifts metabolism toward glucose uptake, fatty-acid oxidation and mitochondrial biogenesis, mimicking aspects of exercise signaling, though some of its effects do not run through AMPK. Tested in people as acadesine, including in heart surgery, without reaching approval, and prohibited in sport by WADA.
For research purposes only. Not medical advice.
AICAR is not a peptide. It is a nucleoside, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide riboside, with the formula C9H14N4O5 and a molecular weight of 258.2, and CAS 2627-69-2 is that riboside. Its international nonproprietary name is acadesine, the name it carried in human trials. It sits in GLP Agonist & Weight Loss because peptide vendors sell it beside their peptide catalogs, a commercial overlap with no chemical kinship behind it. Its AMPK mechanism, below, is unrelated to the GLP-1 receptor agonism that defines most of that category.
Cells take up AICAR and convert it to its monophosphate, ZMP. In a 1995 study in rat liver cells (Corton et al., European Journal of Biochemistry), ZMP mimicked both activating effects of AMP on AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), direct allosteric activation and promotion of its phosphorylation by an upstream kinase, without changing the cells' own ATP, ADP or AMP. In those cells AICAR almost completely shut down fatty-acid and sterol synthesis, two pathways AMPK switches off, and in isolated fat cells it blunted lipolysis stimulated by isoprenaline. The authors proposed it as a specific way to activate AMPK in intact cells.
It went on to become one of the most commonly used pharmacological activators of AMPK, and that reliance carries a caveat. A 2021 systematic review in Cells (Višnjić et al.) described a growing number of studies showing that AICAR effects once attributed to AMPK activation are AMPK-independent, and called for caution in reading AICAR-based studies as evidence about AMPK itself. MOTS-c is a peptide studied for activity on the same pathway.
In 2008 in Cell, Narkar and colleagues reported that 4 weeks of AICAR alone, given to sedentary mice, induced metabolic genes and raised treadmill running endurance by 44%. The paper's title calls AMPK and PPAR-delta agonists exercise mimetics. The result comes from mice and is preclinical.
In heart surgery, acadesine was studied as a way to limit ischemia-reperfusion injury after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and the RED-CABG investigators described it as a first-in-class adenosine-regulating agent. A 1997 meta-analysis in JAMA (Mangano, for the Multicenter Study of Perioperative Ischemia Research Group) pooled individual patient data from five randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials in CABG surgery. The RED-CABG authors summarized that evidence as associating perioperative acadesine with fewer early cardiac deaths and myocardial infarctions.
RED-CABG followed in Phase 3 (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00872001), listed under Merck Sharp & Dohme as sponsor with the Duke Clinical Research Institute as collaborator, and published in JAMA in 2012 (Newman et al.). It randomized intermediate- to high-risk patients having nonemergency, on-pump CABG at 300 sites in 7 countries between May 2009 and July 2010 to perioperative acadesine or placebo. The primary outcome was a composite of death from any cause, nonfatal stroke or need for mechanical support for severe left ventricular dysfunction through day 28 after surgery.
The trial stopped early. The authors wrote that a prespecified futility analysis indicated a very low likelihood of a statistically significant efficacious outcome, so it ended after 3080 of a projected 7500 participants had been randomized. In the results posted to ClinicalTrials.gov, counting all 3080 randomized participants whether or not they received study drug, the primary composite occurred in 4.9% of each arm. The paper reported no differences in key secondary endpoints and concluded that acadesine did not reduce the composite.
Acadesine has also been tested in blood cancers. A Phase 1/2 trial run by the Groupe Francophone des Myelodysplasies (NCT01813838), in myelodysplastic syndromes and related leukemias that had failed azacitidine or decitabine, was terminated after enrolling five participants, and its ClinicalTrials.gov record gives renal toxicity as the reason.
As of October 21, 2026, Drugs@FDA returns no application under either acadesine or AICAR, so it holds no FDA approval and is not a component of any approved drug. It appears in neither of FDA's bulk-substance nomination lists (503A, updated May 14, 2026, and 503B, updated March 21, 2025), so neither a 503A compounding pharmacy nor a 503B outsourcing facility can use it.
It is also absent from both tables of the FDA's Category 2 safety-risk page and from the July 2026 Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee agenda, so the arc traced on the BPC-157 page does not apply to it. Its standing in sport is covered in WADA's 2027 prohibited list and the peptides on it.
No. AICAR is a nucleoside, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide riboside, with the formula C9H14N4O5 and a molecular weight of about 258, while peptides are chains of amino acids. It is catalogued on PeptideScouter because research vendors sell it beside their peptide catalogs, a commercial overlap with no chemical kinship behind it.
Yes. Acadesine is the international nonproprietary name for AICAR, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide riboside, and it is the name the compound carried in human clinical trials, including a Phase 3 trial in coronary artery bypass surgery. Research vendors sell it under the name AICAR.
RED-CABG was a Phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of acadesine given around the time of coronary artery bypass surgery, listed on ClinicalTrials.gov under Merck Sharp & Dohme and published in JAMA in 2012. It was stopped after 3080 of a projected 7500 patients had been randomized, because a prespecified futility analysis showed a very low likelihood of a statistically significant benefit. Counting all randomized patients, death, nonfatal stroke or need for mechanical support for severe left ventricular dysfunction within 28 days occurred in 4.9% of each group. The authors concluded that acadesine did not reduce that composite outcome.
No. No FDA-approved drug contains AICAR, also called acadesine, and as of October 2026 it appears in neither of FDA's bulk drug substance nomination lists, the one for 503A compounding pharmacies or the one for 503B outsourcing facilities.
AICAR is sold by 6 research peptide vendors indexed on PeptideScouter, with 7 tracked listings compared per vendor in the table above. Pricing is normalized and refreshed daily.
4 of the 6 indexed vendors currently have AICAR in stock. The comparison table marks out-of-stock listings, and stock state is refreshed daily.
Peptide Giants currently lists AICAR at $0.78/mg, the lowest listed price across 6 tracked research peptide vendors. With current vendor discount codes applied, the lowest effective price is $0.40/mg.
Discount codes are issued per vendor rather than per peptide, so any code applies across that vendor's whole catalog. All 6 vendors listing AICAR publish a PeptideScouter code, worth 10% to 15% off. Applied, the lowest effective price falls from $0.44/mg listed to $0.40/mg at Studz Peptides. Each vendor's code is shown beside its price in the table above.
AICAR ranges from $0.44/mg to $1.40/mg across 7 listings from 6 research peptide vendors, normalized to USD per milligram and refreshed daily.
6 research peptide vendors currently list AICAR on PeptideScouter, with 4 in stock right now. We track 7 listings across size and kit variants.
AICAR's CAS Registry Number is 2627-69-2.
