In brief
A review of how synthetic melanocortins reached the clinic. The authors describe the design of potent, long-acting, enzyme-resistant analogues of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone as tools for working out what melanocortin receptors do. Two of them were patented and taken into clinical studies: melanotan I, a linear peptide tested for skin tanning, and melanotan II, a cyclic truncated peptide tested for diagnosing and treating male erectile dysfunction. A further analogue, PT-141, had completed early trials at the time of writing and was heading for pivotal studies. The review speculates that melanotan I might offer a protective tan and that PT-141 might improve sexual function in men and women.
Study design
Historical review of melanocortin peptide drug development, written by researchers from the University of Arizona group that designed the melanotans.
What it does not show
A 2006 account by the compounds' inventors, so partly a record of their own programme. Since it was written, PT-141 (bremelanotide) and melanotan I (afamelanotide) have been approved for specific indications; melanotan II itself has not, and this review reports no new data.
A review summarises other papers and inherits every limit of the work it cites. It adds no new experiment, and where a review is written by the group that developed the compound, the selection of what to include is theirs.
Where this paper is cited
- Melanotan II — History of melanocortin peptide development from the α-MSH analogues to clinical candidates.
Other papers cited for Melanotan II
- Study in humans Synthetic melanotropic peptide initiates erections in men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction: double-blind, placebo controlled crossover study Wessells et al. (1998), J Urol
Further reading
- Research library: every paper cited on this site, by compound and by study type.
- Melanocortin peptides: Melanotan II and KPV
- How to read a certificate of analysis
- Lyophilised peptide storage and stability
How this page was made: the citation was retrieved from PubMed by PMID and checked against the title on the product page; the summary was written from the paper's abstract and reports only what the abstract reports. Read the paper itself before relying on any figure here.