# CJC-1295: An Editorial Scroll of the GHRH Analog and Its Discontinued Clinical Program > CJC-1295 is a 30-residue GHRH analog whose DAC variant produced 2- to 10-fold GH elevations for six days in healthy adults. An editorial scroll of the published medical literature. _AN UNROLLED SCROLL — CJC-1295 IN THE MEDICAL LITERATURE_ **CJC-1295: thirty residues, four substitutions, one discontinued clinical program — and a Phase 1 record that still anchors the GHRH-analog literature.** A single subcutaneous dose raised growth hormone two- to ten-fold for six days. Then the program stopped. An editorial scroll of what the studies actually measured. ## 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](/research#mod-grf) — 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. ## 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](/research#mod-grf)) 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. ## 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]. ## 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](/research#mechanism) — receptor, signaling, pulse architecture, and the DAC chemistry that extends the signal across days. The single load-bearing scientific section. [CJC-1295 dosage](/dosage) — what was administered in published human trials, the [CJC-1295 half-life](/dosage#half-life) of the DAC and non-DAC variants, and the dosing frequencies the protocols used. [CJC-1295 side effects](/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](/research#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](/faq) index and [references and citations](/references) page close the scroll. The [developmental history](/about#history) of the program — ConjuChem's program, its halt, the silence that followed — sits on /about. ## References [01] 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. — doi:10.1210/jc.2005-1536 · PMID 16352683 · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16352683/ [02] Jetté L, Léger R, Thibaudeau K, Benquet C, Robitaille M, Pellerin I, Paradis V, van Wyk P, Pham K, Bridon DP. Human growth hormone-releasing factor (hGRF)1-29-albumin bioconjugates activate the GRF receptor on the anterior pituitary in rats: identification of CJC-1295 as a long-lasting GRF analog. Endocrinology. 2005;146(7):3052-3058. — doi:10.1210/en.2004-1286 · PMID 15817669 · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15817669/ [07] aidsmap (NAM Publications). Lipodystrophy study halted after patient death. News report on ConjuChem Phase II program. 2006. — https://www.aidsmap.com/news/jul-2006/lipodystrophy-study-halted-after-patient-death [12] Bridon DP, ConjuChem Inc. Drug Affinity Complex (DAC) technology overview. 2005. — https://www.conjuchem.com/technology/dac.html [13] Modified GRF (1-29) pharmacology overview. Review article citing original GHRH analog pharmacology literature. 2024. — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_GRF_(1-29) [18] ConjuChem Biotechnologies (sponsor). A Study to Evaluate CJC 1295 in HIV Patients With Visceral Obesity. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00267527. 2007. — https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00267527 [20] U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee (PCAC) Meeting; Bulk Drug Substances Nominated for Inclusion on the 503A Bulk Drug Substances List. December 2024 briefing documents. — https://www.fda.gov/media/183819/download --- An unrolled scroll of the peer-reviewed CJC-1295 literature, read in sumi-ink and a single vermillion seal — not a clinic, not a pharmacy, not a prescription.