SYMPOSIUM 16: New Psychoactive Substances: New Drugs, New Challenges
Tracks
Track 4
| Tuesday, September 23, 2025 |
| 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel - Waterfront Ballroom III |
Speaker
Dr Marthe Vandeputte
Ghent University
Pharmacological characterization and activity-based detection of emerging new synthetic opioids
Biography
Marthe graduated from Ghent University (Belgium) in 2019 as a pharmacist with a Master’s in Drug Development. Later that year, she started working at the UGent Laboratory of Toxicology under the supervision of Prof. Christophe Stove. In 2024, she defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘The old, the new, the (un)expected: a pharmacological perspective on new synthetic opioids of the post-fentanyl analogue era’. As a postdoctoral researcher at the UGent Laboratory of Toxicology, she continues her research on the activity-based detection and pharmacological characterization of new psychoactive substances with a special focus on synthetic opioids.
Dr Simona Pichini
Director
National Centre On Addiction And Doping, National Institute Of Health, Rome
A snapshot on last generation cathinones in Italy: kinetics, metabolism, acute and fatal intoxications
Abstract
Due to their psychoactive effects, synthetic cathinones (SCs) were confirmed as the second most prevalent class of NPS in 2024, underscoring their widespread availability and use. When the first generation synthetic cathinones (methylone,mephedrone, MDPV) became illegal, a second and third generationemerged and a lack of information exists on their molecular structure and metabolic pathway, making their identification in biological samples.challenging. This is critical in the case of cathinones that undergo extensive metabolic degradation, for which the identification of metabolites in urine constitutes the only possible way of attesting their consumption,
In this concern, our study group investigated the kinetics and metabolism of most popular last-generation cathinones in consumers.
The main metabolic pathways of the latest generation synthetic cathinones N-ethylhexedrone (NEH), N-Ethylpentedrone (NEP) and 4-Chloromethcathinone (4-CMC, clephedrone) in urine suggested hydroxy-NEP, hydroxy-NEH and hydroxy-4-CMC as target analytes in the pharmacotoxicological analyses, so as to increase detection time after parent compound intake.
Disposition of α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (α-PVP) in urine and oral fluid showed a later time peak than non-pyrrolidine SCs and N-butanoic acid metabolite as the most abundant metabolite whereas β-OH-α-PVP was a minor metabolite.
Between 2022 and 2024, Italy reported 106 cases of intoxication associated with SCs consumption. MDPHP was the most frequently involved cathinone, either consumed alone or in combination with other substances. Two fatalities exclusively linked to MDPHP consumption were also reported between 2023 and 2024.
These findings highlight the evolving landscape of SCs distribution and consumption, their kintetics and metabolism emphasizing the need for continued monitoringdevoted to public health interventions.
In this concern, our study group investigated the kinetics and metabolism of most popular last-generation cathinones in consumers.
The main metabolic pathways of the latest generation synthetic cathinones N-ethylhexedrone (NEH), N-Ethylpentedrone (NEP) and 4-Chloromethcathinone (4-CMC, clephedrone) in urine suggested hydroxy-NEP, hydroxy-NEH and hydroxy-4-CMC as target analytes in the pharmacotoxicological analyses, so as to increase detection time after parent compound intake.
Disposition of α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (α-PVP) in urine and oral fluid showed a later time peak than non-pyrrolidine SCs and N-butanoic acid metabolite as the most abundant metabolite whereas β-OH-α-PVP was a minor metabolite.
Between 2022 and 2024, Italy reported 106 cases of intoxication associated with SCs consumption. MDPHP was the most frequently involved cathinone, either consumed alone or in combination with other substances. Two fatalities exclusively linked to MDPHP consumption were also reported between 2023 and 2024.
These findings highlight the evolving landscape of SCs distribution and consumption, their kintetics and metabolism emphasizing the need for continued monitoringdevoted to public health interventions.
Biography
Simona Pichini is an italian Pharmacotoxicologist working at the Italian National Institute of Health. She is the Director of National Centre on Addiction and Doping. She is an expert of pharmacokinetics and toxicokinetics of classical drugs of abuse, new psychoactive substances and doping agents in conventional and non conventional biological matrices . She is one of the international experts in monitoring ethanol exposure biomarkers in newborns, children, adults and pregnant women in correlation with clinical outcomes.
Master degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Sapienza University, Rome, November 1986, cum laude
Master degree in Pharmacy, Sapienza University, Rome, July 1987, cum laude.
PhD in Clinical Pharmacology, “Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona”, Barcelona, February 2005, cum laude.
Author of more than 400 scientific publications (H index: 55), book chapters and technical reports.
Technical-scientific advisor for Italian free telephone helplines on: alcohol, drugs of abuse, tobacco smoking, doping, gambling
Operating arm of the Italian National Early Warning System on New Psychoactive Substances and scientific expert at the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA).
Member of the Editorial Board of the indexed scientific journals "Therapeutic Drug Monitoring" and "Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis" TIAFT secretary since 2024 and recipient in in 2010 of the "Award of Excellence in Forensic Toxicology", awarded for the first time to a woman by TIAFT.
Ziteng Wang
Department of Pharmacology, National University of Singapore
Metabolism and pharmacokinetics of new psychoactive substances, with a focus on synthetic cannabinoids & psychedelics
Biography
