Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-based inhibitors of HCV polymerase

Heterocycle-functional steroidal derivatives: Design, synthesis, bioevaluation and SARs of steroidal pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines as potential ALK inhibitors

Two series of heterocyclic steroidal pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines derived from dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and epiandrosterone (EPIA) were designed and synthesized, and these compounds were screened for their potential antiproliferation activities. The preliminary bioassay indicated that some of target compounds exhibited significantly good antiproliferation activities against human melanoma cell line (A875) and human hepatocellular carcinoma (Huh-7) cell lines compared with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and some of which present good antiproliferative activities as potential ALK inhibitors. The detailed analysis of structure-activity relationships (SARs) based on the inhibition activities, kinase assay, and molecular docking demonstrated that the antiproliferation activities of these steroidal pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine might be affected by the β-hydroxyl group of steroidal scaffold and the N atom of pyridine heterocycle. Especially, compound 4c has certain inhibitory effects on the tyrosine protein kinases ALK, CDK2/CyclinE1, FAK, CDK5/P35, CDK9/CyclinT1, CDK5/P25, PIM2, CDK2/CyclinA2, CDK1/CyclinB1, etc., and which displayed highest inhibitory effect on the kinases of ALK with inhibition rate 40.63 % at the concentration of 10 μM, which induced cell death in A875 cells at least partly (initially), by apoptosis.

A Simple and Easily Implemented Method for the Regioselective Introduction of Deuterium into Azolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines Molecules

A method for the technically easy-to-implement synthesis of deuterium-labeled pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines and 1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines have been developed. The regioselectivity of such transformations has been shown. ¹H NMR and mass spectrometric methods have proved the quantitative nature of such transformations and the kinetics of deuterium exchange has been studied. Spectrally, at different temperatures (+30 °C, -10 °C and -15 °C), the kinetics of the process was studied both in CD₃OD and in deuterated alkali.

Insights into the medicinal chemistry of heterocycles integrated with a pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine scaffold

Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines are the dominant motif of many drugs; for instance, zaleplon and indiplon are sedative agents and ocinaplon was identified as an anxiolytic agent. The importance of this class of compounds lies in its varied and significant biological activities, and accordingly, considerable methods have been devised to prepare these compounds. Hence, other derivatives of this class of compounds were prepared by substitution reactions with different nucleophiles exploiting the activity of groups linked to the ring carbon and nitrogen atoms. The methods used vary through the condensation reactions of the aminopyrazoles with 1,2-allenic, enaminonitriles, enaminones, 1,3-diketones, unsaturated nitriles, or unsaturated ketones. Alternatively, these compounds are prepared through the reactions of acyclic reagents, as these methods were recently developed efficiently with high yields. The current review highlighted the recent progress of the therapeutic potential of pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines as antimicrobial, anticancer, antianxiety, anti-proliferative, analgesic, and antioxidant agents, carboxylesterase, translocator protein and PDE10A inhibitors, and selective kinase inhibitors.

Purine analogues as potential CDK9 inhibitors: New pyrazolopyrimidines as anti-avian influenza virus

Cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) are a group of enzymes involved in different phases of the cell cycle. In addition, it has been reported that CDK9 could be used as a crucial target for the development of antiviral drugs such as purine analogues; roscovitine and dinaciclib. A new series of benzothiazolyl pyrazolopyrimidine carboxamide derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their antiviral activity against avian influenza "bird flu" (H5N1). The novel compounds were synthesized via the reaction of pyrazolo carboxamide derivatives with different derivatives of ylidine benzothiazole. The reaction proceeded via a Michael addition pathway. Antiviral activity was determined using a plaque reduction assay against the H5N1 virus. Five compounds showed the highest inhibitory activity in the range of 61.6 to 71.6% at 0.1 μmol/mL. Based on a molecular docking study, an enzyme assay was carried out against CDK9 for the previously mentioned top-ranked compounds. It was found that compound 11f was the most potent inhibitor of CDK9 with an IC₅₀ of 0.062 μmol/mL. A QSAR model was built to determine the hidden feature responsible for the biological activity of the novel compounds. It was found that two sets of descriptors, 3 D Potential energy descriptors and 2 D Atom Counts and Bond Counts descriptors, were correlated to a linear model with RMSE and r2 coefficient values of 0.75 and 0.80, respectively. A molecular dynamic simulations study of 11f over 10 ns against dinaciclib showed that both 11f and dinaciclib achieved equilibrium at 2 Å.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15257770.2022.2059674 .

Bicyclic 5-6 Systems: Comprehensive Synthetic Strategies for the Annulations of Pyrazolo[ 1,5-a]pyrimidines

Pyrazolopyrimidines are a privileged class of 5-6 bicyclic systems with three or four nitrogen atoms, including four possible isomeric structures. The significance of this class of compounds is that they can be applied in medical and pharmaceutical fields due to their unlimited biological aptitude, hence it is the basic skeleton of several synthetic drugs. The current review aimed to highlight all the synthetic routes that have been applied to construct the pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine ring systems up to date. The sections in this study included the synthesis of pyrazolo[1,5- a]pyrimidines by condensation reactions of 5-aminopyrazoles with each of β-diketones, 1,5-diketones, β- ketoaldehydes, α-cyanoaldehydes, β-enaminones, enamines, enaminonitriles, ethers, with unsaturated ketones, unsaturated thiones, unsaturated esters, unsaturated dienones "1,2-allenic", unsaturated aldehydes, unsaturated imines, and unsaturated nitriles. The routes adopted to synthesize this class of heterocyclic compounds were extended for ring construction from acyclic reagents and multicomponent reactions under catalytic or catalyst-free conditions.

Privileged scaffolds in medicinal chemistry: Studies on pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines on sulfonamide containing Carbonic Anhydrase inhibitors

We report for the first time a small series of compounds endowed in vitro with inhibitory properties for the human (h) expressed Carbonic Anhydrase (CAs, E.C. 4.2.1.1) enzymes of physiological interest (i.e. I, II, VA, IX and XII) and bearing the pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine (PP) scaffold at the tail section. Among the series reported, 1a-3a, 7a, 8a, 1b and 2b resulted effective ligands and with good selectivities for the hCAs II, IX or XII. In consideration of the nearly matching K_I values of 7a for both the hCA II and IX (i.e. 26.4 and 23.0 nM respectively) we explored its binding mode within the CA IX mimic isoform by means of X-ray crystal experiments on the corresponding adduct.

New Route to the Synthesis of Benzamide-Based 5-Aminopyrazoles and Their Fused Heterocycles Showing Remarkable Antiavian Influenza Virus Activity

This study describes a new route to the synthesis of novel benzamide-based 5-aminopyrazoles and their corresponding pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine and pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazine derivatives. Benzamide-based 5-aminopyrazoles were prepared through a reaction of benzoyl isothiocyanate with malononitrile in KOH-EtOH followed by alkylation with alkyl halides and then a reaction with hydrazine. In an attempt to react benzoyl isothiocyanate with ethyl cyanoacetate in KOH-EtOH followed by alkylation with methyl iodide at room temperature and then a reaction with hydrazine has resulted in the formation of 3-ethoxy-5-phenyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole. The structures of the new compounds were characterized by mass spectroscopy, ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy (IR), and X-ray analysis. The new compounds were tested in vitro for their anti-influenza A virus (subtype H5N1) activity. Among the synthesized compounds, eight compounds 3b, 4, 10b, 10c, 12a, 19, 21a, and 21b were found to possess significant antiviral activities against bird flu influenza (H5N1) with viral reduction in the range of 85-65%.

An insight on synthetic and medicinal aspects of pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine scaffold

Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine scaffold is one of the privileged hetrocycles in drug discovery. Its application as a buliding block for developing drug-like candidates has displayed broad range of medicinal properties such as anticancer, CNS agents, anti-infectious, anti-inflammatory, CRF₁ antagonists and radio diagnostics. The structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies have acquired greater attention amid medicinal chemists, and many of the lead compounds were derived for various disease targets. However, there is plenty of room for the medicinal chemists to further exploit this privileged scaffold in developing potential drug candidates. The present review briefly outlines relevant synthetic strategies employed for pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine derivatives. It also extensively reveals significant biological properties along with SAR studies. To the best of our understanding current review is the first attempt made towards the compilation of significant advances made on pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines reported since 1980s.

Recent advances on the synthesis of hepatitis C virus NS5B RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase inhibitors

Hepatitis C is a viral liver infection considered as the major cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The HCV NS5B polymerase, an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, is essential for HCV replication, which is able to catalyze the synthesis of positive (genomic) and negative (template) strand HCV RNA, but has no functional equivalent in mammalian cells. Therefore, the NS5B polymerase has emerged as an attractive target for the development of specifically targeted antiviral therapy for HCV (DAA, for direct-acting antivirals). Recently, a growing number of compounds have been reported as the NS5B polymerase inhibitors, some of which especially have been licensed in clinical trials. This review describes recent advances on the synthesis of the NS5B polymerase inhibitors, focusing on the merits and demerits of their synthetic methods. In particular, inspiration from the synthesis and the future direction of the NS5B polymerase inhibitors are highlighted.

Anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities of novel pyrazole analogues

A new sequence of pyrazole derivatives (1–6) was synthesized from condensation technique under utilizing ultrasound irradiation. Synthesized compounds were characterized from IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, Mass and elemental analysis. Synthesized compounds (1–6) were screened for antimicrobial activity. Among the compounds 3 (MIC: 0.25 μg/mL) was exceedingly antibacterially active against gram negative bacteria of Escherichia coli and compound 4 (MIC: 0.25 μg/mL) was highly active against gram positive bacteria of Streptococcus epidermidis compared with standard Ciprofloxacin. Compound 2 (MIC: 1 μg/mL) was highly antifungal active against Aspergillus niger proportionate to Clotrimazole. Synthesized compounds (1–6) were screened for anti-inflammatory activity and the compound 2-((5-hydroxy-3-methyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)(4-nitrophenyl)methyl)hydrazinecarboxamide (4) was better activity against anti-inflammatory when compared with standard drugs (Diclofenac sodium). Compounds (2, 3 and 4) are the most important molecules and hence the need to develop new drugs of antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory agents.

DNMT3A and IDH mutations in acute myeloid leukemia and other myeloid malignancies: associations with prognosis and potential treatment strategies

The development of effective treatment strategies for most forms of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has languished for the past several decades. There are a number of reasons for this, but key among them is the considerable heterogeneity of this disease and the paucity of molecular markers that can be used to predict clinical outcomes and responsiveness to different therapies. The recent large-scale sequencing of AML genomes is now providing opportunities for patient stratification and personalized approaches to treatment that are based on individual mutational profiles. It is particularly notable that studies by The Cancer Genome Atlas and others have determined that 44% of patients with AML exhibit mutations in genes that regulate methylation of genomic DNA. In particular, frequent mutation has been observed in the genes encoding DNA methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A), isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) and isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 (IDH2), as well as Tet oncogene family member 2. This review will summarize the incidence of these mutations, their impact on biochemical functions including epigenetic modification of genomic DNA and their potential usefulness as prognostic indicators. Importantly, the presence of DNMT3A, IDH1 or IDH2 mutations may confer sensitivity to novel therapeutic approaches, including the use of demethylating agents. Therefore, the clinical experience with decitabine and azacitidine in the treatment of patients harboring these mutations will be reviewed. Overall, we propose that understanding the role of these mutations in AML biology will lead to more rational therapeutic approaches targeting molecularly defined subtypes of the disease.

Synthesis and characterization of celecoxib derivatives as possible anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antioxidant, anticancer and anti-HCV agents

A series of novel N-(3-substituted aryl/alkyl-4-oxo-1,3-thiazolidin-2-ylidene)-4-[5-(4-methylphenyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]benzenesulfonamides 2a-e were synthesized by the addition of ethyl a-bromoacetate and anhydrous sodium acetate in dry ethanol to N-(substituted aryl/alkylcarbamothioyl)-4-[5-(4-methylphenyl)-3-(trifluoro-methyl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]benzene sulfonamides 1a-e, which were synthesized by the reaction of alkyl/aryl isothiocyanates with celecoxib. The structures of the isolated products were determined by spectral methods and their anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antioxidant, anticancer and anti-HCV NS5B RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) activities evaluated. The compounds were also tested for gastric toxicity and selected compound 1a was screened for its anticancer activity against 60 human tumor cell lines. These investigations revealed that compound 1a exhibited anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities and further did not cause tissue damage in liver, kidney, colon and brain compared to untreated controls or celecoxib. Compounds 1c and 1d displayed modest inhibition of HCV NS5B RdRp activity. In conclusion, N-(ethylcarbamothioyl)-4-[5-(4-methylphenyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]benzenesulfonamide (1a) may have the potential to be developed into a therapeutic agent.

Synthesis, Structural Elucidation, and In Vitro Antitumor Activities of Some Pyrazolopyrimidines and Schiff Bases Derived from 5-Amino-3-(arylamino)-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxamides

The reaction of 5-amino-3-(arylamino)-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxamides 1a,b with acetylacetone 2 and arylidenemalononitriles 5a–c yielded the pyrazolo[1,5-a]-pyrimidine derivatives 4a,b and 7a–f respectively. On the other hand, Schiff bases 9a,b and 12a–j were obtained upon treatment of carboxamides 1a,b with isatin 8 and some selected aldehydes 11a–e. The newly synthesized compounds were characterized by analytical and spectroscopic data. Representative examples of the synthesized products 4a,b, 7e, 7f, 9b, 12b–f, 12h, and 12j were screened for their in vitro antitumor activities against different human cancer cell lines and the structure-activity relationship (SAR) was discussed.

Discovery and characterization of a novel 7-aminopyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine analog as a potent hepatitis C virus inhibitor

We describe a novel 7-aminopyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine (7-APP) derivative as a potent hepatitis C virus (HCV) inhibitor. A series of 7-APPs was synthesized and evaluated for inhibitory activity against HCV in different cell culture systems. The synthesis and preliminary structure-activity relationship study of 7-APP are reported.

Identification of aryl dihydrouracil derivatives as palm initiation site inhibitors of HCV NS5B polymerase

Aryl dihydrouracil derivatives were identified from high throughput screening as potent inhibitors of HCV NS5B polymerase. The aryl dihydrouracil derivatives were shown to be non-competitive with respect to template RNA and elongation nucleotide substrates. They demonstrated genotype 1 specific activity towards HCV NS5B polymerases. Structure activity relationships and genotype specific activities of aryl dihydrouracil derivatives suggested that they bind to the palm initiation nucleotide pocket, a hypothesis which was confirmed by studies with polymerases containing mutations in various inhibitor binding sites. Therefore, aryl dihydrouracil derivatives represent a novel class of palm initiation site inhibitors of HCV NS5B polymerase.

Allosteric inhibition of the hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase: in silico strategies for drug discovery and development

Chronic infection by hepatitis C virus (HCV) often leads to severe liver disease including cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver failure. Despite it being more than 20 years since the identification of HCV, the current standard of care for treating the infection is based on aspecific therapy often associated with severe side effects and low-sustained virological response. Research is ongoing to develop new and better medications, including a broad range of allosteric NS5B polymerase inhibitors. This article reviews traditional computational methodologies and more recently developed in silico strategies aimed at identifying and optimizing non-nucleoside inhibitors targeting allosteric sites of HCV NS5B polymerase. The drug-discovery approaches reviewed could provide take-home lessons for general computer-aided research projects.