SLU-PP-332 is sold in peptide catalogues, asked about as a peptide, and taken orally — and all three of those are at odds with what it is. It is a 290-dalton synthetic acylhydrazone that activates the estrogen-related receptors, its published work is entirely in cells and mice by injection, and the laboratory that created it has stated in print that it lacks oral bioavailability. This guide sets out what has actually been measured. Educational use only, not medical advice.
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SLU-PP-332 Guide: Available Now
Educational use only — not medical advice. This guide summarizes information reported in published research and community practice for educational purposes. It is not medical advice and not a recommendation to use any compound. Any doses, schedules, or combinations shown are examples of what has been reported, not instructions for you. Many peptides described here are research compounds that are not FDA-approved for the uses discussed and may be investigational or restricted. Effects, risks, and legal status vary; individual needs and results vary. Consult a qualified, licensed healthcare professional before making any decision. Do not use this content to diagnose, treat, or dose yourself.
SLU-PP-332 at a glance
It is not a peptide
SLU-PP-332 is a small synthetic molecule — PubChem CID 5338394, formula C18H14N2O2, molecular weight 290.3 g/mol, named 4-hydroxy-N-[(E)-naphthalen-2-ylmethylideneamino]benzamide. It contains no amino acids and no peptide bonds. For scale, the smallest genuine peptides in this library are several times its mass.
What it does
A pan-agonist of the estrogen-related receptors ERR-alpha, ERR-beta and ERR-gamma — orphan nuclear receptors that regulate mitochondrial biogenesis, oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid oxidation and the Krebs cycle. It is described in the literature as an exercise mimetic and is widely used as a chemical probe for ERR activation.
The oral question, answered by its developers
The group that created it states it plainly: SLU-PP-332 'improves aerobic performance in mice but lacks oral bioavailability' (PMID 41421047). That sentence appears as the rationale for developing a different compound, SLU-PP-915, specifically to obtain an orally bioavailable ERR agonist.
Registered human trials
Zero. No study lists SLU-PP-332 as an intervention on ClinicalTrials.gov. The entire published record is cell-based and preclinical.
What the animal work measured
Increased aerobic exercise performance (distance and duration), induction of Ddit4 — a gene induced by acute aerobic exercise — at levels matching or exceeding treadmill running in some muscles, enhanced fatty acid oxidation, more type IIa muscle fibres, reduced adiposity, improved glycaemic control and increased basal energy expenditure in obesity models.
Route in the published work
Intraperitoneal injection is the route under which SLU-PP-332's exercise-mimetic effects were characterised in mice. The comparison compound SLU-PP-915 was the one shown to retain efficacy when given orally.
Plasma half-life
Unknown in humans — no human pharmacokinetic study of SLU-PP-332 has been published, so any specific human figure is unsourced. What is documented is that the compound lacks oral bioavailability (PMID 41421047) and that analogues improved on its metabolic stability (PMID 41850449).
Known chemistry limitations
A systematic structure-activity analysis of the scaffold reports that while SLU-PP-332 remains a strong benchmark for ERR activation, several analogues achieve comparable transcriptional responses with improved ligand efficiency, solubility or metabolic stability (PMID 41850449) — i.e. the parent compound is the benchmark for potency, not for drug-like properties.
Educational reference. This page does not publish dose ranges or reconstitution arithmetic.
What it is / mechanism
The estrogen-related receptors are orphan nuclear receptors — ERR-alpha, ERR-beta and ERR-gamma — and despite the name they are not estrogen receptors and do not bind estrogen. They are transcription factors that sit at the centre of the cell's oxidative-metabolism programme, regulating genes for mitochondrial biogenesis, oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid oxidation and the Krebs cycle. They are also essential for how skeletal muscle adapts to aerobic exercise, which is the observation that made them a target in the first place.
SLU-PP-332 is a synthetic pan-agonist: it activates all three. Because these are nuclear receptors rather than cell-surface receptors, the consequence of agonism is a change in gene transcription rather than a rapid signalling event, and that is exactly how the effect has been characterised. Pan-ERR agonists induce a gene-expression programme resembling acute aerobic exercise, dependent on ERR-alpha, including activation of Ddit4 and Slc25a25 (PMID 42024694). Ddit4 in particular is used as the readout throughout this literature because it is a gene induced by acute aerobic exercise, so its induction is a direct molecular comparison to the thing the compound is meant to mimic — and in the mouse work its induction matched or exceeded the levels produced by treadmill running, depending on the muscle examined (PMID 41421047).
Downstream of the transcriptional programme, the reported physiology is coherent: enhanced fatty acid oxidation, an increase in type IIa muscle fibres — the oxidative-glycolytic fibre type that uses both fat and glucose — and improved endurance (PMID 42024694).
One structural point belongs in the mechanism section because it explains most of the confusion around this compound. SLU-PP-332 is not a peptide and does not act like one. Peptides in this library act at cell-surface receptors and are destroyed by digestive proteases, which is why they are injected. SLU-PP-332 is a 290-dalton small molecule that must cross the cell membrane and reach a nuclear receptor to do anything at all. Those are different pharmacological problems, and the reason this compound is not oral is not the reason a peptide is not oral — it is a bioavailability property of this particular molecule, which its developers addressed by designing a different one.
Researched effects
Everything below was measured in cells or in mice. There is no human data of any kind.
The exercise-mimetic finding is the core of the record. SLU-PP-332 improves aerobic exercise performance in mice — distance and duration — and robustly induces Ddit4, with induction matching or exceeding treadmill running in some muscles (PMID 41421047). A systematic review of the pan-ERR agonist literature from 2020 to 2024 summarises the wider picture: the compounds induce an acute-aerobic-exercise-like gene programme dependent on ERR-alpha, enhance fatty acid oxidation, increase type IIa muscle fibres and improve endurance; in obesity models SLU-PP-332 and SLU-PP-915 reduce adiposity, improve glycaemic control and increase basal energy expenditure, without evident toxicity, and effects on renal ageing and mitochondrial function have also been examined (PMID 42024694).
That is a genuinely interesting preclinical package, and it deserves to be described as what it is rather than deflated for its own sake. ERR agonism produces a real, reproducible, exercise-associated transcriptional signature, and the endurance results in mice are not marginal.
What the record does not contain is equally definite. No human trial exists — the ClinicalTrials.gov registry lists no study with SLU-PP-332 as an intervention. No human pharmacokinetic study, no dose-finding work and no bioavailability measurement in humans has been published. Body-composition and performance results in mice given intraperitoneal injections do not establish an effect in a person taking a capsule, and the compound's own developers identified the step where that inference breaks.
The 'without evident toxicity' phrase from the review also needs reading precisely: it summarises preclinical models over their study durations, not human safety, and 'no evident toxicity in mouse obesity models' is not a safety finding about people.
Evidence & regulatory status
Developers' own statement on oral bioavailability: PMID 41421047 — 'We previously developed an ERR pan-agonist, SLU-PP-332 (332), which improves aerobic performance in mice but lacks oral bioavailability.' The paper characterises SLU-PP-915 as a chemically distinct, orally bioavailable ERR pan-agonist that matches 332's exercise-mimetic activity intraperitoneally and retains efficacy orally, adjusted for systemic exposure.
Systematic review of pan-ERR agonists (2020-2024 literature): PMID 42024694 — exercise-like gene programme dependent on ERR-alpha including Ddit4 and Slc25a25; enhanced fatty acid oxidation; increased type IIa fibres; improved endurance; reduced adiposity, improved glycaemic control and increased basal energy expenditure in obesity models, without evident toxicity in those models.
Structure-activity analysis of the scaffold: PMID 41850449 — first comprehensive SAR of the SLU-PP-332 scaffold; SLU-PP-332 remains a strong benchmark for ERR activation, while several analogues achieve comparable or context-dependent transcriptional responses with improved ligand efficiency, solubility or metabolic stability.
Identity: PubChem CID 5338394, molecular formula C18H14N2O2, molecular weight 290.3 g/mol, 4-hydroxy-N-[(E)-naphthalen-2-ylmethylideneamino]benzamide. A synthetic acylhydrazone small molecule, not a peptide.
Registry: no study lists SLU-PP-332 as an intervention on ClinicalTrials.gov. There is no human trial, no human pharmacokinetic data and no established human dose.
Route in the published work: intraperitoneal injection in mice. No human route has been characterised.
Research timeline
Dated milestones taken from the primary records: the molecule's discovery, its first registered human study, the trials that shaped the evidence and the regulatory decisions. Each entry links to the record it comes from.
SLU-PP-332 is reported as a synthetic agonist of all three estrogen-related receptors, most potent at ERR-alpha; in mice it increases oxidative type IIa muscle fibres and exercise endurance. PMID 36988910
In mice with heart failure from pressure overload, SLU-PP-332 and a second agonist, SLU-PP-915, improve ejection fraction, reduce fibrosis and increase survival. PMID 37961903
In diet-induced obese and ob/ob mice, SLU-PP-332 raises energy expenditure and fat burning, limits fat gain and improves insulin sensitivity, which its developers describe as mimicking exercise. PMID 37739806
The developing laboratory states that SLU-PP-332 lacks oral bioavailability and presents SLU-PP-915, a chemically distinct agonist that works when given by mouth in mice. PMID 41421047
An anti-doping laboratory identifies the metabolites human liver enzymes make from SLU-PP-332 so that sports testing can detect it; the paper notes that WADA prohibits exercise mimetics and metabolic modulators. PMID 41688415
Records checked Oct 4, 2026
Claims at a glance
The claims most often made about this compound, each with the strongest kind of evidence we found for it. The grade says what was studied, not whether the claim is true; the line beside it says what that study showed.
Mimics exercise and improves enduranceAnimal studies only. Mice given it had more oxidative muscle fibres and ran longer, through the receptor it was designed for; no person has been tested. PMID 36988910
Burns fat and improves metabolismAnimal studies only. In obese mice it raised energy expenditure and fat burning and reduced fat build-up; no human metabolic measurement exists. PMID 37739806
Helps the heartAnimal studies only. In an animal model of heart failure it improved pumping, reduced scarring and raised survival; healthy hearts were not the question studied. PMID 37961903
Preserves muscle with ageCell or tissue studies only. Muscle precursor cells taken from inactive women formed more muscle fibres in a dish with it, a pilot study; no living person or animal was treated for this. PMID 40692696
Extends lifespanNo study found. A PubMed search for SLU-PP-332 returned ten records; none measured lifespan in any species. PubMed search, Oct 7, 2026
Works when taken by mouthNo study found. None of the ten PubMed records reports how much is absorbed by mouth; its developers later published a separate, orally active successor molecule. PubMed search, Oct 7, 2026
The reasoning behind each grade, study by study, is in this guide's Benefit & Outcome Review.
Grades checked Oct 7, 2026
A printable reference sheet with the compound's key facts, storage guidance and a vial record comes with All-Access Lifetime.
Half-life & pharmacokinetics
No human half-life exists for SLU-PP-332, and no human pharmacokinetic study of any kind has been published — so any specific figure attributed to it in humans is unsourced.
What the literature does say about its pharmacokinetic behaviour is indirect but pointed. The compound lacks oral bioavailability (PMID 41421047), and the structure-activity work on its scaffold identifies metabolic stability as one of the properties improved upon in analogues (PMID 41850449). Both statements describe a molecule whose exposure profile was a known limitation of the chemistry rather than a solved problem.
There is also a conceptual point that matters more here than a clearance figure would. SLU-PP-332 acts on nuclear receptors by changing gene transcription, and transcriptional effects have their own timescale: the induction of a gene programme and the mitochondrial and fibre-type changes downstream of it persist on a biological schedule that is not the same as the compound's presence in plasma. Even if a half-life were published, it would describe how long the molecule lasts, not how long its transcriptional consequences do.
Reported side effects & toxicology
There is no human safety data for SLU-PP-332 — no trials, no case series, no published adverse-event reports from clinical use, because there has been no clinical use to report.
The preclinical literature's summary phrase is that pan-ERR agonists reduced adiposity, improved glycaemic control and increased basal energy expenditure in obesity models 'without evident toxicity' (PMID 42024694). That is a real observation and a narrow one: it covers the models studied, over their durations, with the endpoints those studies measured. It is not a safety finding about humans and should not be quoted as one.
Two structural cautions follow from the mechanism rather than from any report. First, the estrogen-related receptors are broadly expressed regulators of mitochondrial and oxidative metabolism, not muscle-specific ones, so a pan-agonist acts on that programme wherever those receptors are active — which is the flip side of the same breadth that produces the systemic metabolic effects reported in the models. Second, a compound with no human pharmacokinetic data has no established exposure at any amount, so the usual reasoning about a margin between an effective and an excessive dose has no numbers on either side.
The identity issue is a practical safety consideration in its own right: a product sold and consumed as a peptide, when the molecule is a small organic compound, may be handled, stored and combined on assumptions that do not apply to it.
Storage & handling
Store as the supplier specifies. This is a small organic molecule rather than a lyophilised peptide, so peptide storage heuristics are being applied by analogy, not from data about this compound.
If supplied as a powder for reconstitution, refrigerated storage after mixing and protection from light are the standard precautions; avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
Bacteriostatic water contains 0.9% benzyl alcohol as a preservative, which is what permits multiple withdrawals from one vial; sterile water contains no preservative.
Check for undissolved material before drawing. For a compound whose scaffold has documented solubility limitations (PMID 41850449), visible particulate means the concentration in the syringe is not the concentration on the label.
Label the vial with the reconstitution date and the concentration — it cannot be recovered by looking at the vial.
References
Compiled from primary sources: the characterisation of SLU-PP-915 as an orally bioavailable ERR pan-agonist, which states SLU-PP-332's lack of oral bioavailability (PMID 41421047); the systematic review of pan-ERR agonists as exercise mimetics (PMID 42024694); the comprehensive structure-activity analysis of the SLU-PP-332 scaffold (PMID 41850449); the PubChem compound record (CID 5338394); and the ClinicalTrials.gov registry. Presented for research and educational use only; not medical advice, and not a recommendation of any amount, route or schedule.
Evidence File
The SLU-PP-332 Evidence File: No Trials, a Successor Compound That Tells You Why, and a Literature Now Written by Doping Labs
SLU-PP-332 has the strongest preclinical pedigree of any compound in this tranche — a 2023 origin paper, a 2024 paper in Circulation, an identified mechanism through the estrogen-related receptors, and an academic group actively publishing. It also has no clinical trials, no human data, and two features of its own literature that say more than any marketing page will. The first is that the laboratory behind it has moved on to a successor molecule described in its title as orally active, which tells you something about the original. The second is that the three most recent papers with this compound in the title are not about whether it works — they are anti-doping laboratories building assays to detect it. This file reads both signals carefully.
0 registered trials — checked under 3 named terms
10 PubMed records total; 3 with the compound in the title
2 of those 3 are doping-control detection papers
A successor, SLU-PP-915, is described as "orally active" — this one is not
What it is, and why the mechanism deserves respect
The registry: nothing, under every name
The published record: ten papers, and what each generation of them shows
The successor compound, and what its title admits
The doping-control literature, and what it means for anyone tested
What is known about dose, and the answer is nothing
What would change this assessment
7 more sections in the Evidence File for SLU-PP-332
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for SLU-PP-332 for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
The sections above this one stay free to read without an account.
Sourcing File
The SLU-PP-332 Sourcing File: An Acylhydrazone That Can Fall Apart Into Two Pieces, and a Geometry Mass Spec Cannot See
SLU-PP-332 is chemically the least stable compound in this tranche, and the instability is structural rather than incidental. It is an acylhydrazone — two fragments joined by a bond that hydrolyses in acid and isomerises in light. This file works out exactly what it decomposes into and at what masses, so a reader can recognise degraded material on a certificate rather than trusting a purity figure. It also identifies a defect that no mass measurement can detect: the published structure specifies (E) geometry, and the (Z) isomer has an identical formula and an identical mass. As with the D-amino acid in another compound in this library, the analysis most certificates run is structurally incapable of asking the question.
(E) geometry specified; the (Z) isomer is identical by mass
Neutral molecule — no counterion, so no salt-content correction
The identity numbers, and the structure behind the name
The hydrolysis problem, with the exact masses to look for
The geometry nobody checks
What a SLU-PP-332 certificate must show, in priority order
Solubility, storage, and why bacteriostatic water is the wrong solvent
How SLU-PP-332 specifically gets misrepresented
6 more sections in the Sourcing File for SLU-PP-332
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for SLU-PP-332 for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
The sections above this one stay free to read without an account.
Benefit & Outcome Review
The SLU-PP-332 Benefit and Outcome Review: Good Science, Good Journals, No Humans
SLU-PP-332 has a better preclinical record than most compounds sold in this market — a defined molecular target, a clean origin paper, a publication in Circulation, and an active academic group. This review does not treat that as nothing. It does insist on the distinction that all four claims below turn on: the evidence is entirely in animals and cells, the compound has never been given to a human in a registered study, and its own laboratory has moved to a successor molecule. Each claim is graded on what was measured, in what species, and whether the result can be expected to survive the route of administration people actually use.
4 marketed claims assessed
0 supported by human data
3 have direct rodent evidence, one in a major cardiology journal
0 published oral bioavailability figures for this molecule
How each claim is graded
Claim 1 — Mimics the effects of exercise and improves endurance
Claim 2 — Causes fat loss and improves metabolic health
Claim 3 — Cardiovascular or heart-failure benefit
Claim 4 — Anti-ageing, longevity, or muscle preservation
Safety, and two things worth weighing
The honest summary
7 more sections in the Benefit & Outcome Review for SLU-PP-332
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for SLU-PP-332 for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
Quick answers about guide scope, access, and educational use context.
Is SLU-PP-332 a peptide?
No. SLU-PP-332 is a synthetic small molecule — PubChem CID 5338394, molecular formula C18H14N2O2, molecular weight 290.3 g/mol, chemically 4-hydroxy-N-[(E)-naphthalen-2-ylmethylideneamino]benzamide. It contains no amino acids and no peptide bonds. It is stocked and discussed alongside peptides because of what it is used for, not because of what it is, and the difference matters: it acts on nuclear receptors inside the cell rather than on a cell-surface receptor.
Can SLU-PP-332 be taken orally?
Its developers say no. The group that created the compound wrote that SLU-PP-332 'improves aerobic performance in mice but lacks oral bioavailability', and gave that as the reason for developing SLU-PP-915, a chemically distinct ERR pan-agonist that is orally bioavailable and retains comparable exercise-mimetic efficacy when given by mouth (PMID 41421047). Any oral daily figure for SLU-PP-332 describes a route the compound's own developers designed a different molecule to get around.
What is the correct SLU-PP-332 dosage?
None is established, because no human study has ever been published. There is no human pharmacokinetic data, no dose-response study and no bioavailability figure for any route in humans, and ClinicalTrials.gov lists no study with SLU-PP-332 as an intervention. Figures in circulation are scaled from mouse experiments or asserted outright; mouse intraperitoneal doses do not convert reliably to human amounts even for well-characterised drugs, and here there is nothing on the human side to anchor a conversion to.
What does SLU-PP-332 actually do?
It is a pan-agonist of the estrogen-related receptors ERR-alpha, ERR-beta and ERR-gamma — orphan nuclear receptors regulating mitochondrial biogenesis, oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid oxidation and the Krebs cycle. Activating them induces a gene-expression programme resembling acute aerobic exercise, dependent on ERR-alpha and including Ddit4 and Slc25a25, with enhanced fatty acid oxidation, more type IIa muscle fibres and improved endurance in animal models (PMID 42024694). Despite the name, ERRs are not estrogen receptors and do not bind estrogen.
Are there any human trials of SLU-PP-332?
No. No study lists it as an intervention on ClinicalTrials.gov, and the published record is entirely cell-based and preclinical. The animal results are substantive — improved aerobic performance, Ddit4 induction matching or exceeding treadmill running in some muscles, reduced adiposity and improved glycaemic control in obesity models — but they are results in mice, obtained by intraperitoneal injection.
What is the half-life of SLU-PP-332?
Unknown in humans; no human pharmacokinetic study exists, so any specific figure is unsourced. Indirectly, the literature describes a molecule with known exposure limitations: it lacks oral bioavailability (PMID 41421047), and the structure-activity work on its scaffold lists metabolic stability among the properties that analogues improved on (PMID 41850449). Note also that a nuclear-receptor agonist's transcriptional effects run on a different timescale from its plasma presence.
What is the difference between SLU-PP-332 and SLU-PP-915?
They are chemically distinct ERR pan-agonists from the same programme. SLU-PP-915 enhances aerobic exercise performance to a similar extent as SLU-PP-332 when administered intraperitoneally, and maintains comparable efficacy when administered orally, adjusted for systemic exposure — the property SLU-PP-332 lacks. In the same work, 915 also synergised with exercise training to further enhance Ddit4 and mitochondrial gene expression (PMID 41421047).
Does SLU-PP-332 dissolve in bacteriostatic water?
It depends on the supplier's formulation, and this is worth checking rather than assuming. Lyophilised peptides are formulated to redissolve readily in aqueous diluent; SLU-PP-332 is a small organic molecule with a naphthalene group, and the published structure-activity analysis of its scaffold lists solubility among the properties improved in analogues (PMID 41850449). Reconstitution arithmetic assumes the compound is fully in solution — visible particulate or persistent cloudiness means the concentration drawn is not the concentration calculated.
What can a SLU-PP-332 certificate of analysis establish?
For this compound, identity testing is the field that carries the most weight — precisely because it is a small molecule rather than a peptide, its mass (290.3 Da) and formula (C18H14N2O2) are distinctive and easily checked against the PubChem record, CID 5338394. Purity by HPLC describes one batch. A COA cannot establish that the tested batch is the vial received, cannot establish sterility, and says nothing about the diluent. Purity is also not potency: a high-purity result for the wrong molecule is still the wrong molecule.
Compliance and trust notes
Educational content only; no personalized health or outcome claims.
No personalized use recommendation outputs.
Use this material for general learning and research-context literacy.
A certificate of analysis (COA) is a laboratory’s report on one sample of one batch. The single most useful thing to know about it is that purity and identity are two separate results that fail in different ways. A high purity figure says the sample was mostly one substance; it does not say that substance was SLU-PP-332. Identity — normally a mass-spectrometry result matching the expected molecular weight — is what establishes what the material actually is, and a certificate reporting purity alone has not answered that question.
Two further limits are worth holding onto. Mass per vial is its own test: a vial can be 99% pure and still contain less material than the label claims. And sterility, endotoxin, heavy metals and residual solvent screening are separately commissioned tests, usually priced individually — so a “third-party tested” badge asserts none of them unless the certificate names them. Check that the batch or lot number on the document matches the vial in front of you; an unmatched certificate describes someone else’s material.
Medibact does not test, endorse or resell peptides, and publishes no rating of any laboratory. How to read a peptide certificate of analysis walks through the document section by section, and what each COA field establishes covers the field-by-field detail and the laboratories that publish their methods.
You’ll need bacteriostatic water
The diluent for reconstituting SLU-PP-332
Reconstitution is volume arithmetic — it assumes a lyophilized vial is dissolved in bacteriostatic water, which is sterile water preserved with 0.9% benzyl alcohol. The preservative is what allows a vial to be entered more than once; plain sterile water carries none and is single-entry by design. Medibact supplies USP-grade Bacteriostatic Water for Injection in a 30 mL multi-dose vial, made in the United States and shipped from the United States, for research use only. One 30 mL vial covers 30 reconstitutions at 1 mL each, 15 at 2 mL, or 10 at 3 mL — division only, not a dosing recommendation.
Educational use only — not medical advice. This guide summarizes information reported in published research and community practice for educational purposes. It is not medical advice and not a recommendation to use any compound. Any doses, schedules, or combinations shown are examples of what has been reported, not instructions for you. Many peptides described here are research compounds that are not FDA-approved for the uses discussed and may be investigational or restricted. Effects, risks, and legal status vary; individual needs and results vary. Consult a qualified, licensed healthcare professional before making any decision. Do not use this content to diagnose, treat, or dose yourself.
