ADB-P7AICA

N-[(2S)-1-amino-3,3-dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl]-1-pentylpyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine-3-carboxamide

Synthetic cannabinoid, a full CB1 agonist. Identified in 2021; human data absent.

Updated on 29 July 2026

Level of detail

Harm-reduction warning

No characterised human dose: animal / in vitro data only. Effect profile, safety margin and acute toxicity are not documented in human clinical practice. Extremely potent compound: severe effects, seizures and deaths reported in the literature.

Identifiers

Formula: C₁₉H₂₈N₄O₂
Molar mass: 344.22 g·mol⁻¹
CAS: -
PubChem CID: 155538637
First described: 2021 (première identification par la DEA, annonce du 25 février 2021)
Origin: A synthetic product with no natural occurrence: a laboratory molecule distributed as a designer drug. It was spotted in the United States by the Drug Enforcement Administration together with the CTEB clinical toxicology laboratory of the University of California, San Francisco, in urine samples collected in November 2020 from a group of detainees in Alabama.
InChIKey: QDZHLYBDQFZWCJ-OAHLLOKOSA-N

In plain terms

ADB-P7AICA is a synthetic cannabinoid, made in the laboratory and with no connection whatsoever to hemp or CBD. It is encountered sprayed onto plant material resold as herb or as a supposedly permitted product, never as an ingredient of a CBD product. It acts far more strongly than THC on the same brain receptors, and human data are lacking: this page is here to inform, not to sell.

Receptors and activity

CB1
Ki 3,94 nM ; CE50 5,8 nM (Emax 112 % du CP55,940)Agonist
CB2
Ki 20,4 nM ; CE50 7,1 nM (Emax 108 % du CP55,940)Agonist

Agonist
Partial agonist
Antagonist
Modulator
Inverse agonist

Hover over a row for the precise value (Ki, EC50…)

Subjective signature

Hover over an axis to read its definition.

Calm
5
Clarity
5
Sleep
5
Appetite
5
High
5

Editorial estimate, not clinical.

Pharmacology

ADB-P7AICA is a 7-azaindole (pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine) 3-carboxamide combining a tert-leucinamide head and an N-pentyl chain. The only published pharmacological characterisation is that of Sparkes et al. (RSC Medicinal Chemistry, 2022): by displacement of [³H]CP55,940 on HEK293 membranes, a Ki of 3.94 nM at CB1 and 20.4 nM at CB2; by membrane potential in AtT20 cells, an EC50 of 5.8 nM at CB1 and 7.1 nM at CB2, for a maximal effect reaching 112 % and 108 % of that of CP55,940. It is therefore a full agonist at both receptors, and that is the decisive difference from THC, which is only a partial agonist: a full agonist has no ceiling effect, which explains the severity of the poisonings described in this class. The authors place the 7-azaindole core well behind the indazoles, ADB-BUTINACA tested in parallel binding CB1 with a Ki of 0.299 nM, about ten times better. In β-arrestin 2 recruitment (NanoBiT, HEK293T cells), the EC50 at CB1 falls back to 147 nM. In mice, the molecule lowers core body temperature, the signature of a central cannabimimetic action. Beyond this single paper and the DEA announcement of February 2021, the literature is empty: no clinical case, no metabolism study, no human data.

Key sources.

Origin (pharmaceutical research → illicit market)

No biosynthetic pathway: the molecule does not exist in hemp and comes from laboratory synthesis, by amide coupling between a 1-pentyl-7-azaindole-3-carboxylic acid and tert-leucinamide.

Legal framework

France

Not classified by name. France classifies synthetic cannabinoids by generic families in annex IV of the decree of 22 February 1990, recast by the decree of 31 March 2017: twelve families and about a hundred named substances. ADB-P7AICA does not appear there, and its pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine (7-azaindole) core is not covered, since the only azaindole family retained is that of the "pyrrolo[3,2-c]pyridine carboxamide", a different fusion isomer. A full-text search for "pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine" on Légifrance returns no result. As the text stands, the molecule is therefore caught neither by a listing by name nor by a generic clause, a situation liable to change with each amendment of annex IV.

European Union

No European Union act names ADB-P7AICA: a EUR-Lex search returns no result, and the molecule has not been the subject of a risk assessment followed by a control measure at Union level. Control rests with national laws: Germany covers it through the generic cannabimimetics group of annex 1 of the NpSG, which expressly targets the 7-azaindol-1,3-diyl motif with a carboxamide bridge. Outside the Union, the United Kingdom places it in Class B through the generic clause of 2016, which explicitly cites the pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine core, the carboxamide bridge and an alkyl chain. No international control measure under the United Nations conventions has been identified. A close analogue, 5F-AB-P7AICA, had been notified to the Union's Early Warning System by Germany in 2018; that notification concerns the analogue, not this molecule.

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

Structural classification

Class: Synthetic cannabinoid (SCRA)
Origin: A synthetic product with no natural occurrence: a laboratory molecule distributed as a designer drug. It was spotted in the United States by the Drug Enforcement Administration together with the CTEB clinical toxicology laboratory of the University of California, San Francisco, in urine samples collected in November 2020 from a group of detainees in Alabama.
Status: Narcotic: generic clause

Carboxamide de 7-azaindole (pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine-3-carboxamide) portant une tête tert-leucinamide et une chaîne N-pentyle ; analogue azoté de la série des 3-carboxamides indoliques.

Pharmacokinetics

Aucune donnée humaine de pharmacocinétique. Chez la souris, l'administration systémique abaisse la température corporelle centrale, ce qui atteste le passage de la barrière hémato-encéphalique et une action centrale (Sparkes et al., 2022). Demi-vie, biodisponibilité et durée d'action chez l'humain restent inconnues.

Metabolism

Aucune étude de métabolisme dédiée à cette molécule n'a été identifiée. La DEA a détecté, confirmé et quantifié le composé inchangé dans l'urine, ce qui indique qu'une fraction est excrétée sous forme parente. Les voies décrites pour d'autres carboxamides de synthèse, hydrolyse de la fonction amide et hydroxylation de la chaîne pentyle, relèvent de ces analogues et n'ont pas été vérifiées ici.

Toxicology and risks

Le danger central est l'agonisme complet de CB1 : à la différence du THC, agoniste partiel, un agoniste complet ne présente pas de plafond d'effet, ce qui expose à des intoxications sévères. Pour la classe des cannabinoïdes de synthèse, la littérature documente convulsions, delirium, tachyarythmies, vomissements incoercibles, insuffisance rénale aiguë et décès ; ces observations portent sur la classe et sur d'autres molécules, pas sur celle-ci. Aucun cas clinique ni décès imputé à ADB-P7AICA n'a été publié. Le groupe chez qui il a été retrouvé consommait aussi tianeptine, 4-CN-AMB-BUTINACA, cathinones, amphétamines dont la PMMA et phénibut, de sorte qu'aucun tableau clinique ne peut lui être attribué. Les données humaines manquent.

Detection and analysis

Détecté, confirmé et quantifié dans l'urine par chromatographie liquide couplée à la spectrométrie de masse à temps de vol quadripolaire, au laboratoire CTEB de l'université de Californie à San Francisco pour le programme de surveillance de la DEA. Les tests immunologiques usuels du cannabis ne le repèrent pas. Lors de l'annonce de 2021, aucun standard de référence n'était commercialisé, ce qui compliquait la confirmation en routine.

References

Structured data

InChIKey: QDZHLYBDQFZWCJ-OAHLLOKOSA-N
SMILES: NC(=O)[C@@H](NC(=O)c1cn(CCCCC)c2ncccc21)C(C)(C)C
Formula: C19H28N4O2
Molar mass: 344.22 g·mol⁻¹
PubChem CID: 155538637

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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

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