First clinical demonstration of sustained insulin-like growth factor 1 elevation via oral somatostatin receptor 5 antagonism: a phase 1 trial of SCO-240

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at IGF-1 LR3 and Somatostatin.

Somatostatin receptor 5 (SSTR5) negatively regulates growth hormone (GH) secretion in the human pituitary.

SCO-240 is a novel, oral selective SSTR5 antagonist designed to stimulate the GH/insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) axis by "releasing the brake" on endogenous GH secretion.

The researchers evaluated whether sustained SSTR5 antagonism could induce a durable IGF-1 response while maintaining endocrine selectivity and metabolic neutrality.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 32 men taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this IGF-1 LR3 study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the men nor the staff measuring them knew who was on IGF-1 LR3, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with IGF-1 LR3 could be set against what happens without it.

The methods mention a period of 7 days.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Receptors, Somatostatin and Human Growth Hormone.

The authors tagged it with the keywords SCO-240, insulin-like growth factor 1 and somatostatin receptor type 5.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of IGF-1 LR3 and Somatostatin in 32 men over 7 days.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2026 (European journal of endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the IGF-1 LR3 compound page and the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.