Espindolol (S-Pindolol, MT-102)

by Patrick Arnold

Anabolic drugs are not dead, in fact research to develop new ones are aggressively being pursued to address medical situations such as cancer cachexia (wasting secondary to cancer) and sarcopenia (age related loss of muscle mass). Both of these categories are potentially huge money makers. Amongst the weird drugs that are being proposed for these applications is one that kind of boggles my mind. It is actually a current drug used to treat high blood pressure. Well, I guess you can say HALF of the drug is being developed as an anabolic

The drug I am referring to is called Pindolol, and the ?half? that is being developed is S-pindolol. What I mean by that is that Pindolol is what is known as a racemic compound (it exists in a 50/50 ratio of right and left handed isomers) and the drug proposed as an anabolic is S-pindolol (the left handed isomer only). Many drugs are like this and often only one isomer is the active one. Take for example methamphetamine. Its active isomer is the right handed one. The left handed one is weak enough that it is allowed to be sold over the counter as a component of vicks inhalers.

Pindolol is sold to treat high blood pressure and it does so by blocking the effects of adrenaline like compounds on the heart (it?s a beta1 blocker). As such it decreases the force and frequency of heartbeats and thusly blood pressure decreases. Interestingly, pindolol also has agonist effects upon receptors of adrenaline like compounds too, specifically on skeletal muscle (it?s a beta2 agonist). You may be familiar with beta2 agonists such as clenbuterol. They are anabolic

Anyway, this compound (the S-isomer of pindolol which is the isomer that does stuff) is poised to be marketed as an anabolic for cancer cachexia and maybe sarcopenia. Studies have been done that have demonstrated muscle growth in these models. Myostatin has been shown to be suppressed amongst other things, which are effects we know happens with beta2 agonists (at least in the short term). Cool thing is that unlike most beta2 agonists (clen) this has no stimulatory effect on the heart. Not so cool thing is that it actually has a depressive effect on the heart, which means your exercise performance can suffer because your heart won?t beat fast and hard enough to support your efforts (that is if you train like a man)

Anyway, interesting stuff I suppose and expect it to appear on your banned list soon...