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Compound guide
AICAR: what the research covers
A nucleotide analogue that the cell mistakes for a signal of energy shortage. It has been a standard laboratory tool for activating AMPK for over thirty years.
What AICAR is
AICAR is 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-D-ribofuranoside, a nucleoside and an intermediate of purine biosynthesis. It is not a peptide. Taken up by cells through adenosine transporters, it is phosphorylated to ZMP, which closely resembles AMP.
AMP-activated protein kinase senses the AMP to ATP ratio: rising AMP means the cell is short of energy, and AMPK responds by switching on catabolic pathways and switching off biosynthesis. ZMP mimics that signal without the cell actually being energy-depleted, so AICAR activates AMPK artificially — which is exactly what makes it useful.
It is also known as acadesine, and it has been examined clinically in ischaemia and in leukaemia, quite separately from its role as a laboratory reagent.
The standard tool, and its known limitations
AICAR is the reference AMPK activator. If a published result involves AMPK activation in a cell system, there is a good chance AICAR was the means. That makes it valuable as a positive control and as a comparator for newer activators, including MOTS-c, whose proposed mechanism converges on the same kinase from a different direction.
Its limitations are equally well documented and worth stating. ZMP is not AMP, and it has AMP-independent effects — on fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, on glycogen phosphorylase, on adenosine signalling — so not every AICAR effect is an AMPK effect. Uptake depends on nucleoside transporter expression, which varies between cell types and makes effective intracellular concentration hard to compare across systems. And the AMPK-independent actions become more prominent at the higher concentrations often used.
Careful work therefore pairs AICAR with a structurally unrelated activator, or with AMPK knockdown, rather than treating it as a clean single-target reagent. Its appearance on anti-doping prohibited lists reflects the exercise-mimetic literature in rodents rather than any demonstrated effect of that kind in people.
How Amino Club supplies it
Supplied as a lyophilised powder in sealed vials as AICAR, released against the Certificate of Analysis for its own batch, as described on the lab testing page.
As a nucleoside it is chemically robust compared with a peptide: no proteases, no disulfides, no folding to lose. Solubility in water is moderate and improves with gentle warming, and solutions are kept cold and protected from light. The powder is stored cool and dry. Because the compound is a purine pathway intermediate, laboratories working on nucleotide metabolism should note that it will participate in that chemistry as well as act on AMPK. Diluents are under reconstitution supplies.
Related reading
AICAR sits in the metabolic research peptides group with 5-Amino-1MQ and AOD-9604, and its AMPK mechanism links it to MOTS-c and NAD+ in the longevity group.
Every guide is indexed in the research library. Certificates and storage are covered on the FAQ, quantity pricing through bulk and wholesale.
Research use only
AICAR supplied by Amino Club is a laboratory reference material. It is not a medicine, not a supplement, and not for human or veterinary use, and no dosing guidance or administration protocol is provided. The full terms are in the research use policy.