CJC-1295: thirty residues, four substitutions, one discontinued clinical program — and a Phase 1 record that still anchors the GHRH-analog literature.

I. · CJC-1295: A GHRH-Analog Peptide

CJC-1295: A GHRH-Analog Peptide

CJC-1295 is a 30-residue synthetic analog of human growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH 1-29), built from the sermorelin sequence with four amino-acid substitutions — D-Ala at position 2, Gln at position 8, Ala at position 15, Leu at position 27 — that block cleavage by dipeptidyl peptidase-IV, the enzyme that inactivates native GHRH in plasma within minutes [02]. In its DAC (Drug Affinity Complex) variant, a C-terminal lysine carries a maleimidopropionyl group that reacts in vivo with the free cysteine on circulating serum albumin, anchoring the peptide to a carrier with a circulating half-life near three weeks [02][12].

The consequence is precise. In healthy adults given a single subcutaneous dose, the DAC variant raised mean plasma growth hormone two- to ten-fold and held it elevated for six days or more; insulin-like growth factor I rose 1.5- to 3-fold and stayed up for nine to eleven [01]. The non-DAC variant — chemically the same peptide without the albumin linker, sold and studied under the name modified GRF 1-29 — clears in roughly thirty minutes and was studied as a multi-daily injection [13].

This site is a scroll of that record. It does not sell the compound, recommend a dose, or treat readers as patients. It reads the published literature in plain English and cites every number.

II. · What CJC-1295 is made of

What CJC-1295 is made of

The CJC-1295 backbone is GHRH(1-29) — the 29-residue biologically active core of the 44-residue hypothalamic peptide [02]. Four amino acids in the chain are swapped out: D-Ala replaces the L-Ala at position 2 (this is the critical DPP-IV resistance move), Gln replaces Asn at 8, Ala replaces Gly at 15, and Leu replaces Met at 27 [02]. To the C-terminus a 30th residue, a lysine bearing an N-epsilon-maleimidopropionyl group, is attached. That maleimide is what makes the DAC variant DAC: in plasma, its electrophilic carbon-carbon double bond reacts with the free thiol of Cys34 on human serum albumin, forming a stable covalent thioether bond [02][12].

The non-DAC variant (modified GRF 1-29) has the four substitutions but no maleimide. It is chemically identical to the first 29 residues of CJC-1295 with an amidated C-terminus, and it is the peptide that the published literature treats as the short-half-life sibling of the DAC variant.

III. · What the human trials measured

What the human trials measured

The canonical human paper is Teichman et al., published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2006 [01]. Two ascending-dose trials enrolled healthy adults aged 21 to 61. Single subcutaneous doses ran from 30 to 250 mcg/kg. Across that range, mean plasma GH rose two- to ten-fold and remained elevated for at least six days; IGF-1 rose 1.5- to 3-fold and remained elevated for nine to eleven [01]. The estimated plasma half-life of CJC-1295 itself was 5.8 to 8.1 days [01].

A Phase 2 trial in HIV-associated visceral obesity (NCT00267527) enrolled roughly 192 adults on weekly escalating subcutaneous doses of 60-240 mcg/kg over twelve weeks [18]. The trial was halted in 2006 after one participant died of a myocardial infarction; the attending physician attributed the event to pre-existing coronary artery disease rather than the study drug, and no independent re-analysis has been published in peer-reviewed form [07]. Late-stage development never resumed. CJC-1295 has never received FDA approval for any indication, and the U.S. Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee declined in December 2024 to add it to the 503A Bulks List [20].

IV. · How the scroll is organized

How the scroll is organized

This site is structured as an unrolled scroll. The chapters are linked from the masthead.

CJC-1295 mechanism of action — receptor, signaling, pulse architecture, and the DAC chemistry that extends the signal across days. The single load-bearing scientific section.

CJC-1295 dosage — what was administered in published human trials, the CJC-1295 half-life of the DAC and non-DAC variants, and the dosing frequencies the protocols used.

CJC-1295 side effects — adverse events catalogued in the Phase 1 and Phase 2 record, the known gaps in long-term safety data, and the class-level GH-axis cautions.

CJC-1295 DAC vs no DAC — the disambiguation that the lay literature most often gets wrong: two peptides with the same backbone, different linker chemistry, radically different pharmacokinetics.

A frequently asked questions index and references and citations page close the scroll. The developmental history of the program — ConjuChem's program, its halt, the silence that followed — sits on /about.