6-Substituted 2,4-diaminopyrido[3,2-d]pyrimidine analogues of piritrexim as inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase from rat liver, Pneumocystis carinii, and Toxoplasma gondii and as antitumor agents

Development of substituted pyrido[3,2-d]pyrimidines as potent and selective dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors for pneumocystis pneumonia infection

Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii (pj) can lead to serious health consequences in patients with an immunocompromised system. Trimethoprim (TMP), used as first-line therapy in combination with sulfamethoxazole, is a selective but only moderately potent pj dihydrofolate reductase (pjDHFR) inhibitor, whereas non-clinical pjDHFR inhibitors, such as, piritrexim and trimetrexate are potent but non-selective pjDHFR inhibitors. To meet the clinical needs for a potent and selective pjDHFR inhibitor for PCP treatment, fourteen 6-substituted pyrido[3,2-d]pyrimidines were developed. Comparison of the amino acid residues in the active site of pjDHFR and human DHFR (hDHFR) revealed prominent amino acid differences which could be exploited to structurally design potent and selective pjDHFR inhibitors. Molecular modeling followed by enzyme assays of the compounds revealed 15 as the best compound of the series with an IC₅₀ of 80 nM and 28-fold selectivity for inhibiting pjDHFR over hDHFR. Compound 15 serves as the lead analog for further structural variations to afford more potent and selective pjDHFR inhibitors.

Recent advances in the chemistry and biology of pyridopyrimidines

The interest in pyridopyrimidine cores for pharmaceutical products makes this scaffold a highly useful building block for organic chemistry. These derivatives have found applications in various areas of medicine such as anticancer, CNS, fungicidal, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antibacterial therapies. This review mainly focuses on the progress achieved since 2004 in the chemistry and biological activity of pyridopyrimidines.

Synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular modeling of novel series of pyridine derivatives as anticancer, anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents

This paper presents a combined synthesis; characterization, computational and biological activity studies of novel series of pyridines heterocyclic compounds. The compounds have been characterized by elemental analyses and spectral like IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and MS studies. Michael addition of substituted-2-methoxycarbonylacetanilide 2a,b on the α-substituted cinnamonitriles 3a-d gave the corresponding 2-pyridone derivatives 5-10. Structures of the titled compounds cited in this article were elucidated by spectrometric data (IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and MS). The molecular modeling of the synthesized compounds has been drawn and their molecular parameters were calculated. Also, valuable information is obtained from the calculation of molecular parameters including electronegativity, net dipole moment of the compounds, total energy, electronic energy, binding energy, HOMO and LUMO energy. Various in vitro antitumor as well as in vivo anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of the synthesized compounds were investigated. Evaluation of anti-inflammatory activity of test compounds was performed using carrageenan induced paw edema in rats. All the tested compounds showed moderate to good activity. The SAR results indicate that all compounds showed moderate to good activity, among these 7 and 10 compounds having -N(CH3)2 group are most effective.

Design, synthesis, and molecular modeling of novel pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine analogues as antifolates; application of Buchwald-Hartwig aminations of heterocycles

Opportunistic infections caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii (P. jirovecii, pj), Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii, tg), and Mycobacterium avium (M. avium, ma) are the principal causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The absence of any animal models for human Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia and the lack of crystal structures of pjDHFR and tgDHFR make the design of inhibitors challenging. A novel series of pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines as selective and potent DHFR inhibitors against these opportunistic infections are presented. Buchwald-Hartwig coupling reaction of substituted anilines with pivaloyl protected 2,4-diamino-6-bromo-pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine was successfully explored to synthesize these analogues. Compound 26 was the most selective inhibitor with excellent potency against pjDHFR. Molecular modeling studies with a pjDHFR homology model explained the potency and selectivity of 26. Structural data are also reported for 26 with pcDHFR and 16 and 22 with variants of pcDHFR.

Synthesis and antitumor activity of new dihydropyridine thioglycosides and their corresponding dehydrogenated forms

A number of a new pyridine thioglycosides were synthesized via reaction of piperidinium salts of dihydropyridinethiones with 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-alpha-D-gluco- and galactopyranosyl bromide. The antitumor activities of the synthesized compounds were evaluated utilizing two different human cell lines. Some of the tested compounds showed high inhibition of human cell lines. The detailed synthesis, spectroscopic data and antitumor activities for the synthesized compounds were reported.

Hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of 1,3-bis(trimethylsilyloxy)-1,3-butadienes with arylsulfonylcyanides. Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of 4-hydroxy-2-(arylsulfonyl)pyridines

Hetero-Diels-Alder reactions of 1,3-bis(silyloxy)-1,3-butadienes with arylsulfonylcyanides afforded a variety of 4-hydroxy-2-(arylsulfonyl)pyridines. Several derivatives show antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria.

N9-substituted 2,4-diaminoquinazolines: synthesis and biological evaluation of lipophilic inhibitors of pneumocystis carinii and toxoplasma gondii dihydrofolate reductase

N9-substituted 2,4-diaminoquinazolines were synthesized and evaluated as inhibitors of Pneumocystis carinii (pc) and Toxoplasma gondii (tg) dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Reduction of commercially available 2,4-diamino-6-nitroquinazoline 14 with Raney nickel afforded 2,4,6-triaminoquinazoline 15. Reductive amination of 15 with the appropriate benzaldehydes or naphthaldehydes, followed by N9-alkylation, afforded the target compounds 5- 13. In the 2,5-dimethoxybenzylamino substituted quinazoline analogues, replacement of the N9-CH 3 group of 4 with the N9-C2H5 group of 8 resulted in a 9- and 8-fold increase in potency against pcDHFR and tgDHFR, respectively. The N9-C2H5 substituted compound 8 was highly potent, with IC50 values of 9.9 and 3.7 nM against pcDHFR and tgDHFR, respectively. N9-propyl and N9-cyclopropyl methyl substitutions did not afford further increases in potency. This study indicates that the N9-ethyl substitution is optimum for inhibitory activity against pcDHFR and tgDHFR for the 2,4-diaminoquinazolines. Selectivity was unaffected by N9 substitution.

Prediction of dihydrofolate reductase inhibition and selectivity using computational neural networks and linear discriminant analysis

A data set of 345 dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors was used to build QSAR models that correlate chemical structure and inhibition potency for three types of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR): rat liver (rl), Pneumocystis carinii (pc), and Toxoplasma gondii (tg). Quantitative models were built using subsets of molecular structure descriptors being analyzed by computational neural networks. Neural network models were able to accurately predict log IC(50) values for the three types of DHFR to within +/-0.65 log units (data sets ranged approximately 5.5 log units) of the experimentally determined values. Classification models were also constructed using linear discriminant analysis to identify compounds as selective or nonselective inhibitors of bacterial DHFR (pcDHFR and tgDHFR) relative to mammalian DHFR (rlDHFR). A leave-N-out training procedure was used to add robustness to the models and to prove that consistent results could be obtained using different training and prediction set splits. The best linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models were able to correctly predict DHFR selectivity for approximately 70% of the external prediction set compounds. A set of new nitrogen and oxygen-specific descriptors were developed especially for this data set to better encode structural features, which are believed to directly influence DHFR inhibition and selectivity.

Non-classical antifolates, 5-(N-phenylpyrrolidin-3-yl)-2,4,6-triaminopyrimidines and 2,4-Diamino-6(5H)-oxopyrimidines, synthesis and antitumor studies

A series of non-classical antifolates, namely 5-(N-phenylpyrrolidin-3-yl)-2,4,6-triaminopyrimidines (25a-i) and 2,4-diamino-(N-phenylpyrrolidin-3-yl)-6(5H)-oxopyrimidines (26a,b,c,f,h,i) was synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity. Reacting aniline derivatives with 1,4-dibromo-2-butanol gave 1-phenyl-3-pyrrolidinols (19a--i), which were oxidized to pyrrolidin-3-ones (20a-i). The Knoevenagel reaction of 20a-i with malononitrile or ethyl cyanoacetate gave 3-(dicyanomethylene)- (21a-i) and 3-[cyano(ethoxycarbonyl)methylene]-pyrrolidines (22a,b,c,f,h,i), respectively, which were subsequently reduced to the corresponding 3-(dicyano)methyl- or 3-[cyano(ethoxycarbonyl)methyl)]pyrrolidines (23a-i and 24a,b,c,f,h,i, respectively). Condensation of either 23a-i or 24a,b,c,f,h,i with guanidine afforded the target compounds. The cytotoxicity of these compounds was evaluated based on their ability to inhibit various human tumors (human colon adenocarcinoma COLO 205, lung carcinoma H23 and its adriamycin resistant cell line H23/0.3, T-cell leukemia MOLT-4, promyelocytic leukemia HL-60, and T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia CCRF-CEM) cell growth in culture. These studies revealed that the 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidine derivatives were more cytotoxic than the 2,4-diamino-6(5H)-oxopyrimidine counter parts, in which the latter was inactive in all testing systems. The 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidine derivatives bearing halogen substituent on the phenyl ring (25f,h,i) were cytotoxic in all cultured leukemia cell growth. Among these compounds, 5-(4-fluoro and 4-chlorophenyl)-2,4,6-triaminopyrimidines (25e and 25h, respectively) were more potent than methotrexate (MTX) in inhibiting of H23/0.3 cell growth. These compounds inhibit the folate metabolic pathways as indicated by tritium release from [5-3H]deoxyuridine in MTX sensitive human fibrosarcoma HT-1080 cells. Dihydrofolate reductase is the major target for 25f,h,i, as shown by leucovorin (LV) rescue of MTX cytotoxicity.

QSAR studies on biological activity of piritrexim analogues against pc DHFR

Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies for 2,6-substituted 2,4-diaminopyrido[3,2-d] pyrimidine analogues of piritrexim (PTX) as inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) are now made using topological indices. The results have shown that best models are obtained by multiparametric analysis. The predictive potential of the model is discussed on the basis of a cross-validation method.

Dicyclic and tricyclic diaminopyrimidine derivatives as potent inhibitors of Cryptosporidium parvum dihydrofolate reductase: structure-activity and structure-selectivity correlations

A structurally diverse library of 93 lipophilic di- and tricyclic diaminopyrimidine derivatives was tested for the ability to inhibit recombinant dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) cloned from human and bovine isolates of Cryptosporidium parvum (J. R. Vásquez et al., Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 79:153-165, 1996). In parallel, the library was also tested against human DHFR and, for comparison, the enzyme from Escherichia coli. Fifty percent inhibitory concentrations (IC(50)s) were determined by means of a standard spectrophotometric assay of DHFR activity with dihydrofolate and NADPH as the cosubstrates. Of the compounds tested, 25 had IC(50)s in the 1 to 10 microM range against one or both C. parvum enzymes and thus were not substantially different from trimethoprim (IC(50)s, ca. 4 microM). Another 25 compounds had IC(50)s of <1.0 microM, and 9 of these had IC(50)s of <0.1 microM and thus were at least 40 times more potent than trimethoprim. The remaining 42 compounds were weak inhibitors (IC(50)s, >10 microM) and thus were not considered to be of interest as drugs useful against this organism. A good correlation was generally obtained between the results of the spectrophotometric enzyme inhibition assays and those obtained recently in a yeast complementation assay (V. H. Brophy et al., Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 44:1019-1028, 2000; H. Lau et al., Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 45:187-195, 2001). Although many of the compounds in the library were more potent than trimethoprim, none had the degree of selectivity of trimethoprim for C. parvum versus human DHFR. Collectively, the results of these assays comprise the largest available database of lipophilic antifolates as potential anticryptosporidial agents. The compounds in the library were also tested as inhibitors of the proliferation of intracellular C. parvum oocysts in canine kidney epithelial cells cultured in folate-free medium containing thymidine (10 microM) and hypoxanthine (100 microM). After 72 h of drug exposure, the number of parasites inside the cells was quantitated by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. Sixteen compounds had IC(50)s of <3 microM, and five of these had IC(50)s of <0.3 microM and thus were comparable in potency to trimetrexate. The finding that submicromolar concentrations of several of the compounds in the library could inhibit in vitro growth of C. parvum in host cells in the presence of thymidine (dThd) and hypoxanthine (Hx) suggests that lipophilic DHFR inhibitors, in combination with leucovorin, may find use in the treatment of intractable C. parvum infections.