CJC-1295 - Study Reference

What it is

CJC-1295 is a synthetic 30-amino-acid analogue of growth-hormone-releasing hormone (the active hGRH/GRF 1-29 fragment). It binds the pituitary GHRH receptor and makes the gland release growth hormone (GH), which in turn raises insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Four amino-acid substitutions protect it from the enzyme dipeptidyl-peptidase-4, so it lasts longer than natural GHRH. Two distinct forms exist and must not be confused. (1) CJC-1295 WITH DAC carries a drug-affinity-complex (a maleimidopropionyl group) that covalently latches onto a free thiol on circulating serum albumin after injection. This stretches its plasma half-life from minutes to roughly 6 to 8 days, giving sustained, non-pulsatile background GH stimulation and once-weekly-style dosing. This is the form used in the published Teichman, Ionescu/Frohman and Alba studies and in the foundational Jette rat work. (2) CJC-1295 WITHOUT DAC is the same modified GRF 1-29 sequence but with no albumin anchor, so it acts short (minutes to about 30 minutes), behaving like sermorelin and producing a single GH pulse. There is no published controlled human trial isolating the no-DAC form; the human evidence below is all for the DAC version. CJC-1295 is not an approved drug, has no established human therapeutic dosing, and is sold for laboratory research only. WADA prohibits it in sport.

How studies used it

Model: Phase 1 human pharmacology trial in healthy adults (ages 21 to 61); two sequential studies, single ascending dose then multiple weekly/biweekly dosing
Studied for: Tested as a long-acting GH/IGF-1 secretagogue: could the DAC-anchored GHRH analogue produce sustained rises in GH and IGF-1 in healthy people, and was it tolerated
Dose: 0.03 to 0.06 mg/kg (30 or 60 microg/kg, the tolerability levels reported); the trial used four ascending single doses and the full set is not given in the abstract. Reported per kg in the paper, so no body-weight conversion was needed
Dosing: Single ascending doses in study 1; then 2 or 3 repeated doses given either weekly or every two weeks in study 2
Route: Subcutaneous injection
Duration: Follow-up windows of 28 and 49 days across the two studies

Effects measured: Single dose raised mean plasma GH 2- to 10-fold for 6 days or more and mean IGF-1 1.5- to 3-fold for 9 to 11 days. Estimated CJC-1295 half-life was 5.8 to 8.1 days. With repeated dosing, mean IGF-1 stayed above baseline for up to 28 days. Effects were dose-dependent

Side effects: No serious adverse reactions were reported; the compound was described as safe and relatively well tolerated

Sources: Teichman SL, Neale A, Lawrence B, Gagnon C, Castaigne JP, Frohman LA. Prolonged stimulation of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I secretion by CJC-1295, a long-acting analog of GH-releasing hormone, in healthy adults. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006;91(3):799-805.

Model: Human study in healthy men aged 20 to 40, with overnight (12 hour) blood sampling at 20-minute intervals to map GH pulse pattern
Studied for: Tested whether continuous background stimulation from the long-acting DAC form abolishes the normal pulsatile (pulse-like) pattern of GH release
Dose: 0.06 to 0.09 mg/kg (reported directly per kilogram as 60 or 90 microg/kg). Basis: dose was published per-kg, so no body-weight conversion was needed
Dosing: Single injection; sampling performed about 1 week later
Route: Subcutaneous injection
Duration: One week between dose and overnight sampling session

Effects measured: GH pulsatility was preserved: pulse frequency and pulse magnitude were unaltered. Trough (between-pulse) GH rose 7.5-fold (P less than 0.0001), total mean GH rose 46% (P less than 0.01) and IGF-1 rose 45% (P less than 0.001). So the extra GH came from a higher baseline, not from changed pulses

Side effects: No adverse events were reported in the abstract of this study

Sources: Ionescu M, Frohman LA. Pulsatile secretion of growth hormone (GH) persists during continuous stimulation by CJC-1295, a long-acting GH-releasing hormone analog. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006;91(12):4792-7.

Model: GHRH-knockout mouse (GHRHKO, C57BL background), animals lacking their own GHRH; treatment started at 1 week old and run for 5 weeks
Studied for: Tested whether the DAC form could restore normal growth in mice that cannot make GHRH, and how dosing frequency affected the result
Dose: 2 microg of CJC-1295 per mouse per injection (flat per-animal dose). Basis: the paper reports a fixed amount per mouse and does not state the animals' body weight, so a per-kg figure cannot be given without inventing a weight, which is not done here
Dosing: Three groups dosed at intervals of every 24 h, every 48 h, or every 72 h
Route: Subcutaneous injection
Duration: 5 weeks

Effects measured: Every-24h dosing produced normal body weight and length. Every-48h and every-72h dosing gave higher body weight and length than placebo but did not fully normalise growth. Femur and tibia length stayed normal in the 24h and 48h groups. Relative lean mass and subcutaneous fat were normal in all treated groups. Treatment raised total pituitary RNA and GH mRNA, consistent with somatotroph (GH-cell) proliferation

Side effects: No adverse events were reported in the abstract of this study

Sources: Alba M, Fintini D, Sagazio A, Lawrence B, Castaigne JP, Frohman LA, Salvatori R. Once-daily administration of CJC-1295, a long-acting growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) analog, normalizes growth in the GHRH knockout mouse. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2006;291(6):E1290-4.

How solid the evidence is

Honest assessment: the human evidence for CJC-1295 is thin and early-stage. There are only two small Phase 1 human studies, both for the DAC (long-acting) form, both authored partly by the developer ConjuChem and its collaborator L.A. Frohman, both published in 2006, and neither was a large efficacy trial. They measured pharmacology endpoints (GH, IGF-1, pulse pattern, half-life), not clinical benefit, and reported only short-term safety in healthy volunteers. The Alba mouse study and the Jette rat study are mechanistic preclinical work, also developer-linked. No long-term human safety data exist, no approved human dose exists, and the long-acting DAC profile (sustained, non-pulsatile GH elevation) is biologically different from the body's normal pulsatile pattern, which is a theoretical safety concern that has not been studied long-term in humans. A separate caution: an early aborted clinical program (a related CJC-1295 formulation, CJC-1293) reportedly saw deaths in trials, though that is not documented in these peer-reviewed records and is not included here. Important distinction: essentially all published data are for CJC-1295 WITH DAC; the no-DAC (modified GRF 1-29) form has no dedicated controlled human trial and is inferred from sermorelin-class pharmacology. The two human dose figures are clean (the papers report microg/kg directly, so no body-weight conversion or assumption was needed). The mouse dose is a flat 2 microg per animal and could not be converted to per-kg because the paper gives no body weight; it is reported as published rather than guessed. Bottom line: real, verifiable signal that CJC-1295 raises GH and IGF-1 in humans and animals, but the evidence base is small, old, developer-driven, short-term, and not a basis for any health claim.