AB-005.

AB-005 is an indol-3-yl ketone: the indole nucleus carries a 2,2,3,3-tetramethylcyclopropyl group at position 3 and, on its nitrogen, a (1-methylpiperidin-2-yl)methyl chain. It is a chimeric compound, assembled from fragments of UR-144 and AM-1248, arising from a pharmaceutical programme in search of selective CB2 agonists (Frost and colleagues, 2010). The two available sets of measurements agree on a strong affinity for CB2 and a weaker one for CB1: 0.48 nM and 5.5 nM in Frost's work, 1.04 nM and 59.4 nM in the independent re-evaluation by Hess and colleagues (2016). The decisive point is functional: in that same study, most of the synthetic cannabinoids tested behaved as full agonists at the CB receptors, whereas AB-005 activated them with an efficacy lower than that of THC, itself a partial agonist in this system. Full agonism at the CB1 receptor, which accounts for the clinical severity of many compounds in this family, is therefore not established for AB-005. Its azepane isomer, also found on the illicit market, showed no CB1 affinity up to 10 µM and behaves as a moderate CB2 antagonist: two powders bearing the same name may have opposite pharmacologies. No human data, pharmacokinetic or clinical, have been published.

Source

A molecule from a pharmaceutical laboratory: it comes from the selective CB2 receptor agonist programme at Abbott Laboratories, described by Frost and colleagues in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry in 2010. No natural occurrence, either in hemp or in any other plant. Derivatives of this series subsequently reached the illicit market; AB-005 appeared there in turn, accompanied by an azepane isomer, and the UNODC lists it among the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists of its early warning system.

No biological pathway: the molecule is entirely synthetic. Its framework combines two motifs already known from synthetic cannabinoids, the tetramethylcyclopropyl ketone of UR-144 and XLR-11 on the one hand, and the (1-methylpiperidin-2-yl)methyl chain of AM-1220 and AM-1248 on the other, grafted onto an indole nucleus.

European Union

Control rests with national legislation, which differs from one Member State to another, rather than with a measure designating AB-005 at Union level. The substance is recorded by the UNODC as a cannabinoid receptor agonist in its early warning system on new psychoactive substances. It does not appear in the schedules of the United Nations conventions of 1961 and 1971: the French annex IV brings together precisely those substances scheduled in France or in the Union without being scheduled internationally.

France

A narcotic. AB-005 is cited by name in annex IV of the decree of 22 February 1990, within the generic family of indol-3-yl methanones introduced by the decree of 31 March 2017: this clause expressly covers the 1-(N-methylpiperidin-2-yl)methyl substituent on the indole nitrogen and a cyclopropyl group on the carbon of the methanone bridge. It is therefore not a mere attachment by generic clause: the substance appears under its own name in the consolidated list published by the ANSM.

Sources: EUR-Lex, UNODC, CND, ANSM, IUPHAR/BPS, ChEBI, EUDA. Our method.

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

tetramethylcyclopropylketone

Verification

Classification, sources and binding values checked on 20 October 2026; text read against its sources and Wikipedia.

Wikipedia (English)

AB-005 (new tab)

Article paired by the molecule's structure (InChIKey), revision read on 19 October 2026. Read as a second opinion, never cited as a source.

1. 1Frost JM et al., J Med Chem 2010 (origin of the compound, CB2-selective series; human Ki of 5.5 nM at CB1 and 0.48 nM at CB2, re-read in ChEMBL and in Table 1 of Hess 2016) (new tab)PMID 19921781
2. 2Hess C et al., Forensic Toxicol 2016 (CB1/CB2 affinities, cAMP efficacy lower than that of Δ9-THC, GPR55 and GPR18 with no activity up to 10 µM, azepane isomer a CB2 antagonist) (new tab)PMID 27429655
3. 3Ning et al. · Molecules 2025 (in vitro and in vivo metabolism of 26 synthetic cannabinoids, including AB-005) (new tab)PMID 40649201
4. 4Ambroziak and Adamowicz · Forensic Toxicol 2018 (LC-MS/MS screening of 72 synthetic cannabinoids in whole blood) (new tab)PMID 29963203
5. 5ANSM · consolidated list of substances classified as narcotics, updated 16 February 2026 (AB-005, Annex IV) (new tab)
6. 6Order of 31 March 2017 amending the order of 22 February 1990 (Légifrance) (new tab)
7. 7UNODC Early Warning Advisory · AB-005 record (new tab)

SMILES

CN1CCCCC1Cn1cc(C(=O)C2C(C)(C)C2(C)C)c2ccccc21

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

LLM ingestion format: a structured superset of the entry (identifiers, binding, versioned legal status). Full corpus.