GW0742 (PPAR-delta agonist)
GW-0742, GW610742
A research PPARδ agonist, not a SARM: a GlaxoSmithKline laboratory tool compound and close relative of cardarine (GW501516); its effects were studied only in cells and animals.
Legal status: Never approved; sold as a 'research chemical'. Prohibited at all times in sport as a metabolic modulator; a UK athlete got a three-year ban in 2025.
What it gives
What people use it for and what the sources report. Strength is a general category from the literature: mild, clear or strong.
Purpose
Taken for endurance and fat loss, like cardarine, based on mouse studies. It was never approved as a medicine and is sold only as a 'research chemical'.
What people seek and what studies show
In mice it quickly increased the number of oxidative 'endurance' fibres and capillaries in muscle, and together with AICAR and training it extended running time; in diabetic rats it improved insulin sensitivity. In humans there are only lab tests on cells and a single-dose urine study for doping control. Whether it improves endurance or fat loss in people is unknown.
Effects
Evidence: Animal data only — effects in people are unproven
Sought effects by goal (as reported)
Possible side effects
Possible does not mean certain: whether they appear depends on dose, duration, individual response and monitoring. Below — what to watch for and how to notice it early.
6 possible side effects
level · how often it is reportedWhat the levels mean
Level: general category from the literature, not your personal risk
How often
- common
- reported often
- possible
- reported in some people
- rare
- reported occasionally
How to lower the risks
For 3 of 6 possible side effects there are specific ways to lower the chance: everyday measures, supplements and options a doctor may consider. For the rest — general advice. No measure removes a risk completely.
No check-up or blood test lowers this risk; avoid with any personal or family history of cancer.
Products obtained without a prescription are often fake, mislabeled or non-sterile, and there is no way to check at home. For legal supplements, look for third-party testing (Informed Sport, NSF).
What is unknown cannot be lowered, only avoided; tell your doctor what you have taken.
No alcohol, no other liver stressors, limit oral steroids and their combinations, check liver enzymes.
How each option helps (5)
- Avoiding alcohol and other liver stressors — Removes a major extra liver stressor during oral steroids and other hepatotoxic drugs.
- Regular blood tests — ALT, AST, GGT and bilirubin show liver strain before symptoms; heavy lifting alone raises AST/ALT for days, and GGT helps tell muscle from liver.
- Ademetionine (SAMe) — Used for intrahepatic cholestasis in some countries, but trials are small and of low quality; untested in steroid users. Stopping the oral steroid matters most.
- N-acetylcysteine (NAC) — Restores glutathione; proven in paracetamol poisoning and helped in early acute liver failure of other causes, but untested in steroid users.
- TUDCA (tauroursodeoxycholic acid) — Improves bile flow in cholestatic disease; in steroid cholestasis only case reports, with failures in severe cases. Stopping the oral steroid matters most.
Check estradiol (too low hurts joints), warm up well, avoid overloading.
How each option helps (2)
- Working with a doctor — Finds the cause of joint or muscle pain — estradiol pushed too low by an aromatase inhibitor, GH-driven swelling, statin muscle effects — so treatment can be adjusted.
- Coenzyme Q10 — May ease statin-related muscle aches (one meta-analysis positive, results mixed); no help for joint pain from low estrogen.
Low-level side effects
How each option helps (4)
- Heart screening: ECG and echocardiogram — Echocardiography shows wall thickening and reduced pumping early, while stopping AAS and treating BP can still help.
- Working with a doctor — Orders ECG and echocardiography and treats early heart changes.
- Home blood-pressure monitoring — Keeping BP controlled is one of the main ways to limit heart-wall thickening.
- Regular cardio training — Supports heart and vessel function, but does not reverse steroid-related heart thickening or weakening.
Check-ups and blood tests
Which tests and check-ups to do and when. This is a guide — agree the exact schedule with your doctor.
Which doctors can help
Get medical help at once if
- A new lump (including in the neck), trouble swallowing or persistent hoarseness, unexplained weight loss, or blood in stool or urine — see a doctor promptly.
- Yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, pale stools, intense itching, pain under the right ribs — see a doctor now; sudden severe abdominal pain with dizziness or fainting — call emergency services.
In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
For women
Non-hormonal, so no virilization is expected, but there are no safety data in women, including in pregnancy.
Myth & fact
“GW0742 is a safer version of cardarine.”
Nothing shows that. It acts on the same receptor, has never been tested for safety in humans, and its sister compound was dropped after causing cancers in rodents.
Combinations
Both activate the same receptor, PPAR-delta, so the second adds no known benefit. Cardarine's development was stopped after long-term animal studies found cancers; GW0742 acts the same way and was never tested for this, so together they only add exposure to that pathway.
Cardarine (GW501516)Sources
Possible side effects by body system, combinations, how to lower the risks and which tests to do — free.
Open the stack check