WADA raises a handful of sensible questions. This page answers them in order, starting with the fundamentals and moving to applications.
Reviewed 2025-08-02. Anything still debated is marked as such rather than presented as settled.
Sporting authorities added GW501516 to prohibited lists after it appeared in athlete samples and online markets. The World Anti-Doping Agency classifies it as a hormone and metabolic modulator, and its use can lead to an anti-doping rule violation. Some early laboratory work suggested effects on fatty acid oxidation and endurance-related metabolism in animals, but those findings do not establish safe or effective use in people. Reports of adverse events in humans are scarce and often anecdotal, which complicates risk assessment.
Legal status varies by country. In some places, cardarine is controlled under medicines or psychoactive substances laws; in others, it may be sold with minimal oversight as a research chemical. Customs agencies have intercepted shipments, and several national health agencies have issued warnings about products marketed for bodybuilding or performance enhancement. The lack of a standardized pharmaceutical supply means identity, purity, and contamination levels can differ widely between samples. These factors make cardarine a regulatory and public health concern rather than a conventional prescription drug.
Cardarine is a common name for GW501516, a synthetic compound first described in the 1990s as a selective agonist of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta. It was studied in preclinical models for metabolic and cardiovascular conditions, but it has not been approved as a medicine in the United States, Europe, or other major jurisdictions. Retail products labeled as cardarine are generally research chemicals or supplements, not pharmaceutical formulations. Because human safety and efficacy data remain limited, regulatory agencies treat it as an unapproved substance rather than a therapeutic product.
Cardarine is a common name for GW501516, also GW-1516, a synthetic compound developed as a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARδ) agonist. It belongs to a class of agents that modulate gene transcription related to lipid and energy metabolism. The compound was studied in preclinical and early clinical research for metabolic and cardiovascular conditions, but it did not progress to approved therapeutic use. Its name appears in fitness and sports contexts despite not being approved as a drug.
PPARδ is a nuclear receptor that influences transcription of genes involved in fatty acid oxidation, lipid transport, and energy homeostasis. GW501516 binds and activates this receptor with high selectivity relative to PPARα and PPARγ in laboratory assays. Activation alters expression of target genes in skeletal muscle, liver, and adipose tissue in animal models. The exact clinical consequences of these changes in humans remain incompletely characterized, and observed effects in animals do not establish therapeutic benefit or safety.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IUPAC name | {4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)sulfanyl]phenoxy}acetic acid | Systematic name for GW501516 |
| CAS Registry Number | 317318-70-0 | Unique identifier for the parent compound |
| Molecular formula | C21H18F3NO3S2 | Includes carbon, hydrogen, fluorine, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur |
| Molecular weight | 453.5 g/mol | Approximate value for the neutral form |
| Appearance | White to off-white powder | Typical description for purified laboratory material |
GW501516 acts as a selective agonist at PPARδ, a nuclear receptor that regulates transcription of genes involved in lipid handling and energy metabolism. Activation of PPARδ in preclinical models increases fatty acid oxidation, mitochondrial biogenesis, and exercise endurance in rodents. These effects have made the compound a subject of metabolic research and also a target for sport anti-doping rules. In humans, however, controlled studies are limited, and whether similar endurance or metabolic changes occur at tolerated exposures remains an open question. The receptor’s broad tissue distribution also means downstream effects may vary by organ and condition.
Detection of GW501516 in biological samples generally relies on liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Urine is a common matrix in anti-doping analysis, while blood or plasma may be used in research settings. Sample preparation can involve enzymatic hydrolysis, protein precipitation, or solid-phase extraction before instrumental analysis. Because the compound undergoes metabolism, assays may target the parent molecule, one or more metabolites, or both. Detection windows are not fixed; they depend on factors such as dose, route, individual metabolism, and assay sensitivity. Reference standards are required for accurate identification and quantification.
Handling and quality assessment of cardarine reference material follow general laboratory practices for poorly characterized compounds. It typically appears as a white to off-white powder and is sparingly soluble in water but soluble in organic solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide and ethanol. Storage recommendations usually specify a cool, dry, dark place, with long-term storage at low temperature and desiccation. Purity may be checked by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection, while identity is confirmed by mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance. No pharmacopeial monograph exists, so reported purity and stability depend on the supplier’s methods.
Cardarine is prohibited in competitive sport under the World Anti-Doping Agency code, where it is classified as a metabolic modulator. It is not approved as a prescription medicine in the United States, European Union, or other major markets. Regulatory action has focused on its presence in sports and in products marketed as research chemicals. Because it has no accepted medical indication, supply is often unregulated. This status creates legal and safety uncertainties for anyone who encounters the substance.
Anti-doping laboratories detect GW501516 and its metabolites using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Urine is the most common matrix, though blood and dried blood spots may also be used in some programs. Detection depends on factors such as dose, timing, metabolism, and the sensitivity of the assay. Published methods describe limits of detection in the low nanogram per milliliter range for related compounds. Exact detection windows are not fixed for all situations and remain an area of ongoing study.
Published human data are sparse and mostly come from early-phase trials. Those studies examined short-term changes in lipids, glucose, and exercise capacity, but they were not large enough to establish efficacy or long-term safety. Some animal experiments reported increased running endurance, yet such findings do not prove a performance benefit in people. Anti-doping laboratories detect GW501516 and its metabolites in urine or blood using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Detection windows depend on dose, sample type, and individual metabolism. The method is sensitive enough to identify trace residues in tested samples.
Laboratory handling focuses on identity, purity, and stability. Reference standards are typically stored cold and dry, protected from light, because solutions can degrade over time. Analytical checks may use high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection or mass spectrometry. Impurities and related substances can be separated chromatographically and compared with a known standard. Because cardarine is not an approved drug, compendial monographs are absent, and laboratories often rely on in-house methods. Reported purity varies among unregulated products and should not be assumed from a label.
Cardarine is a common name for the investigational chemical GW501516, also written GW-1516. It was developed as a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta agonist for metabolic conditions such as dyslipidemia. Early research focused on lipid handling and energy use in skeletal muscle and other tissues. The compound was never approved as a medicine. In public discussion, it is often grouped with performance-enhancing substances, although its receptor target differs from that of anabolic steroids or selective androgen receptor modulators. Regulatory and health authorities have issued warnings about its use.
GW501516 acts on PPARδ, a nuclear receptor that helps regulate fatty acid oxidation and energy homeostasis. In animal studies, activation of this receptor was associated with increased endurance and changes in lipid metabolism. Human trials examined effects on blood lipids and other metabolic markers, but the compound did not advance to approval. Rodent studies later reported tumors in multiple tissues at doses used in those experiments. Whether those findings translate to human risk remains uncertain, and the clinical relevance of the animal data is still debated.
Regulatory bodies treat GW501516 as a prohibited substance in competitive sport. The World Anti-Doping Agency added it to the prohibited list, and it falls under classes covering metabolic modulators and hormone-related agents. It is not approved by drug regulators for human use, and it is not a lawful dietary supplement. Products sold under the cardarine name may contain unlisted ingredients or different compounds. Because no approved product exists, quality and identity are not guaranteed by pharmaceutical manufacturing standards.
=== EC 1.5.99 With unknown physiological acceptors === EC 1.5.99.1: Now EC 1.5.8.3, sarcosine dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.2: Now EC 1.5.8.4, dimethylglycine dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.3: L-pipecolate dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.4: nicotine dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.5: methylglutamate dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.6: spermidine dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.7: Now EC 1.5.8.2, trimethylamine dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.8: Now EC 1.5.5.2, proline dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.9: transferred to EC 1.5.98.1, methylenetetrahydromethanopterin dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.10: Now EC 1.5.8.1, dimethylamine dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.11: transferred to EC 1.5.98.2, 5,10-methylenetetrahydromethanopterin reductase EC 1.5.99.12: cytokinin dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.13: D-proline dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.14: 6-hydroxypseudooxynicotine dehydrogenase EC 1.5.99.15: dihydromethanopterin reductase (acceptor)
== Visitors and media appearances == Cantelmo invited several people to his ranch. One was podcaster and video producer Alex Hall, who recorded an episode of his podcast *The Digital Fireside* with Cantelmo on May 22, 2019, and later visited the property to film. Hall described a large backyard with San Pedro cacti, chickens, and ducks, and noted that Cantelmo was using DMT multiple times per day during the visit. Hall also observed that Cantelmo attempted to persuade strangers in public to try DMT. Another visitor was a podcaster known as Tyger, who flew from Oregon to Los Angeles in May 2019. Cantelmo paid for equipment and travel and appeared on Tyger’s podcast. Tyger later described the interior of the house as decorated with large abstract paintings and noted that Cantelmo employed local homeless people to work in the garden. During the visit Cantelmo took Tyger to a performance by Joe Rogan but did not approach Rogan himself. Cantelmo also interacted with an individual known on Reddit as u/craigsyoga, based in Australia, who helped maintain a website aggregating Cantelmo’s ideas and later appeared on a podcast discussing the period. Some people who knew Cantelmo stated that this individual encouraged continued spending and promotion.
Number average molar mass (Mn), also loosely referred to as number average molecular weight (NAMW). Mass average molar mass (Mw), where w stands for weight; also commonly referred to as weight average or weight average molecular weight (WAMW). Z-average molar mass (Mz), where z stands for centrifugation (from German Zentrifuge). Viscosity average molar mass (Mv).
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Insulin icodec is a medication used to enhance glycemic control in individuals with diabetes. It is an ultralong-acting basal insulin analogue developed by Novo Nordisk. The analog has a plasma half-life exceeding eight days, which is significantly longer than the 25-hour half-life of insulin degludec, the previously longest-acting insulin analogue. Insulin icodec functions as a once-weekly basal insulin.
== Marriage and family == Dayhoff's husband was Edward S. Dayhoff, an experimental physicist who worked with magnetic resonance and with lasers. They had two daughters who are also academics, Ruth and Judith. Judith Dayhoff has a PhD in mathematical biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania and is the author of Neural network architectures: An introduction and coauthor of Neural Networks and Pattern Recognition. Ruth Dayhoff graduated summa cum laude in Mathematics from the University of Maryland and focused on Medical Informatics while doing her MD at Georgetown University School of Medicine. During medical school, she co-authored a paper and a chapter in The Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure with her mother, describing a new way to measure how closely proteins are related. Her husband Vincent Brannigan is professor emeritus of Law and Technology at the University of Maryland School of Engineering. Ruth was a founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. She pioneered the integration of Medical Imaging and invented the Vista Imaging System. She was chosen for the National Library of Medicine's project on the 200 women Physicians who "changed the face of medicine." She serves as director of Digital Imaging in Medicine for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
Following his defeat, Dingane burned his royal household and fled north. Mpande, the half-brother who had been spared from Dingane's purges, defected with 17,000 followers, and, together with Pretorius and the Voortrekkers, went to war with Dingane. Dingane was assassinated near the modern Swaziland border. Mpande then took over rulership of the Zulu nation. Following the campaign against Dingane, in 1839 the Voortrekkers, under Pretorius, formed the Boer republic of Natalia, south of the Tugela, and west of the British settlement of Port Natal (now Durban). Mpande and Pretorius maintained peaceful relations. However, in 1842, war broke out between the British and the Boers, resulting in the British annexation of Natalia. Mpande shifted his allegiance to the British, and remained on good terms with them. In 1843, Mpande ordered a purge of perceived dissidents within his kingdom. This resulted in numerous deaths, and the fleeing of thousands of refugees into neighbouring areas (including the British-controlled Natal). Many of these refugees fled with cattle. Mpande began raiding the surrounding areas, culminating in the invasion of Swaziland in 1852. However, the British pressured him into withdrawing, which he did shortly.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
elegans this initiation response is amplified through the synthesis of a population of 'secondary' siRNAs during which the Dicer-produced initiating or 'primary' siRNAs are used as templates. These 'secondary' siRNAs are structurally distinct from Dicer-produced siRNAs and appear to be produced by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP).
=== Diabetes === Heart disease is twice as common in people with diabetes. In diabetics, cardiovascular complications occur at an earlier age and often result in premature death, making heart disease the major killer of diabetic people. Cardiolipin has been found to be deficient in the heart at the earliest stages of diabetes, possibly due to a lipid-digesting enzyme that becomes more active in diabetic heart muscle.
== Translational readthrough == Stop codon suppression or translational readthrough occurs when in translation a stop codon is interpreted as a sense codon, that is, when a (standard) amino acid is 'encoded' by the stop codon. Mutated tRNAs can be the cause of readthrough, but also certain nucleotide motifs close to the stop codon. Translational readthrough is very common in viruses and bacteria, and has also been found as a gene regulatory principle in humans, yeasts, bacteria and drosophila. This kind of endogenous translational readthrough constitutes a variation of the genetic code, because a stop codon codes for an amino acid. In the case of human malate dehydrogenase, the stop codon is read through with a frequency of about 4%. The amino acid inserted at the stop codon depends on the identity of the stop codon itself: Gln, Tyr, and Lys have been found for the UAA and UAG codons, while Cys, Trp, and Arg for the UGA codon have been identified by mass spectrometry. Extent of readthrough in mammals have widely variable extents, and can broadly diversify the proteome and affect cancer progression.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
No. Major drug regulators have not approved GW501516 for treating any medical condition. Products sold as cardarine are typically unapproved research chemicals or supplements, so their contents and safety are not assured.
It is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a hormone and metabolic modulator. Athletes who test positive for GW501516 can face sanctions, including suspensions and loss of results.
Cardarine is a common or trade-style name, while GW501516 is the research code for the same chemical entity. Some sources also use Endurobol or GSK-516. The names refer to the same compound, not distinct drugs.
Cardarine is commonly known as GW501516 or GW-1516. These names refer to the same synthetic compound. It is not a brand-name approved medicine.