Eternal Summer!--PT-141 Makes You: Slender, Tanned, and Horny

Bremelanotide (Palatin Tech Amex PTN) is an agonist for the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) in the brain. As it happens, the MC4R also affects energy balance, thus weight levels. To complete the hat trick for PT-141, as an alpha MSH analog, Bremelanotide (PT-141) also the MC1R which affects pigmentation levels. Put it all together, and you have slender, well-tanned, and very horny people, ready to frolic in the sun, as well as in places where the sun does not shine!

Here is more information with scientific references from The Neurocritic Blog:

Enter PT-141.

Diamond LE, Earle DC, Rosen RC, Willett MS, Molinoff PB. (2004). Double-blind, placebo-controlled evaluation of the safety, pharmacokinetic properties and pharmacodynamic effects of intranasal PT-141, a melanocortin receptor agonist, in healthy males and patients with mild-to-moderate erectile dysfunction. Int J Impot Res. 16:51-9.

Rosen RC, Diamond LE, Earle DC, Shadiack AM, Molinoff PB. (2004). Evaluation of the safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic effects of subcutaneously administered PT-141, a melanocortin receptor agonist, in healthy male subjects and in patients with an inadequate response to Viagra. Int J Impot Res. 16:135-42.

Diamond LE, Earle DC, Heiman JR, Rosen RC, Perelman MA, Harning R. (2006). An effect on the subjective sexual response in premenopausal women with sexual arousal disorder by bremelanotide (PT-141), a melanocortin receptor agonist. J Sex Med. 3:628-38.

Back in April, there was an article in The Observer Magazine and a post in Pharyngula about this compound. A good place to start if you really want to learn about MC4-R agonists is this article:

Nargund RP, Strack AM, Fong TM. (2006). Melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) agonists for the treatment of obesity. J Med Chem. 49:4035-43.

....Funniest lines from the article:

If MC4R agonists induce spontaneous penile erections in men, this would represent a significant impediment to the development of compounds to treat obesity.

The nonselective melanocortin agonists, 1 and 3, have nausea and vomiting as adverse side effects when administered to humans either subcutaneously or intranasally. Attempts to study whether the effects of these two structurally related molecules are mechanism-based have been of limited utility.

Is PT-141 really a miracle drug? That's highly doubtful. But, as PZ Myers said,

Wow. Makes me want to run out and buy stock in Palatin Technologies, the manufacturer.

Source.

As this article reports, research on Bremelanotide is progressing quickly. To this point, safety and efficacy studies look good, for the indication of erectile dysfunction. But we all really know that ED is not what PT-141 is all about. PT-141 is about sexual desire and pleasure for both men and women, whenever they want it.

If weight loss and a good tan come along with the heightened libido, who am I to complain?