BREMELANOTIDE ACETATE

Biochem/physiol Actions

Bremelanotide (PT-141) is a brain-penetrant, alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (A-MSH)-derived cyclic heptapeptide agonist toward melanocortin receptors, including MC1R, MC3R and MC4R (affinty = 10 nM by competitive binding against 0.2 nM NDP-A-MSH using human MC4R-expressing HEK-293). Bremelanotide induces cAMP accumulation in hMC4R-expressing HEK-293 cells and exhibits in vivo sexual arousal efficacy among both male (50 μg/kg intranasally or 50-500 pg/kg via lateral ventricle injection) and female rats (100-200 μg/kg sc or 800 μg/kg via lateral ventricle injection) by activating neurons in brain regions responsible for sexual function.