Synthesis of Functionalized Pyrimidines from Propargylic alcohols and their Derivatives: Two Decades of Developments

Pyrimidine is a six-membered diaza-heterocycle i.e., 1,3-diazine. It is found to be present in many biologically and pharmacologically active scaffolds like nucleotides, natural products, and drugs. The bioactivities of pyrimidine include anti-tubercular, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-malarial, anti-cancer, anti-neoplastic and many more. In this review article we summarized various synthetic approaches that involve the synthesis of these privileged building blocks by employing propargylic alcohols and their derivatives like propargylic esters and propargylic ynones as three carbon-components. Here, we have confined ourselves to the developments appeared during the period of 23 years i.e., 2000-2022.

Design, efficient synthesis and molecular docking of some novel thiazolyl-pyrazole derivatives as anticancer agents

Pyrazoles, thiazoles and fused thiazoles have been reported to possess many biological activities. 3-Methyl-5-oxo-4-(2-arylhydrazono)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole-1-carbothioamides 3a,b (obtained from the reaction of ethyl 3-oxo-2-(2-arylhydrazono)butanoates 1a,b with thiosemicarbazide) could be transformed into a variety of thiazolyl-pyrazole derivatives 6a–h, 10a–c, 15a–c, 17, 19 and 21 via their reaction with a diversity hydrazonoyl chlorides as well as bromoacetyl derivatives. Moreover, the computational studies were carried out for all new compounds. The results indicated that five compounds showed promising binding affinities (10a: − 3.4 kcal/mol, 6d: − 3.0 kcal/mol, 15a: − 2.2 kcal/mol, 3a: − 1.6 kcal/mol, and 21: − 1.3 kcal/mol) against the active site of the epidermal growth factor receptor kinase (EGFR). The cytotoxicity of the potent products 3a, 6d, 10a, 15a, and 21 was examined against human liver carcinoma cell line (HepG-2) and revealed activities close to Doxorubicin standard drug. There was an understanding between the benefits of restricting affinities and the data obtained from the practical anticancer screening of the tested compounds.

Synthesis and Biological Activity of 2-Amino- and 2-aryl (Heteryl) Substituted 1,3-Benzothiazin-4-ones

Tuberculosis (TB) takes the second place among the reasons for mortality from infectious diseases. For this reason, the problem of tuberculosis treatment requires urgent attention all over the world. Some 2-amino substituted 1,3-benzothiazin-4-ones (2-amino-1,3-BTZs) represent a promising new class of antitubercular agents. Other 1,3-benzothiazin-4-one derivatives, mostly 2-aryl and 2- (pyridin-2-yl) ones, are attractive due to their ability to suppress oxidative stress-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis. This review covers the synthetic approaches to 2-amino- and 2-aryl(heteryl) substituted 1,3-benzothiazin-4-ones (1,3-BTZs). A brief overview of structure-activity relationships is presented.

Investigation of pH and substituent effects on the distribution ratio of novel steroidal ring D- and A-fused arylpyrazole regioisomers and evaluation of their cell-growth inhibitory effects in vitro

Novel androstanopyrazoles have been efficiently synthesized from steroidal β-ketoaldehydes with different arylhydrazine hydrochlorides both under acidic and basic conditions. Knorr-type transformations of 16-hydroxymethylene-dehydroepiandrosterone containing its 1,3-dicarbonyl moiety on ring D, proved to be regioselective in pyridine at room temperature, while mixtures of regioisomers were obtained in acidic EtOH under reflux. Contrarily, the cyclocondensation reactions of 2-hydroxymethylene-dihydrotestosterone bearing its reactive functionalities on ring A, led to a mixture of pyrazole regioisomers in varying ratio depending on the applied medium. The regioisomeric distribution was found to depend on the electronic character of the substituent of the phenylhydrazine applied. After separating the related isomers by column chromatography, they were subjected to in vitro pharmacological studies to investigate their antiproliferative activities against three human breast malignant cell lines (MCF7, T47D, MDA-MB-231). Flow cytometry revealed that the most potent agents elicited a cell cycle disturbance on MDA-MB-231 and T47D cells.

Regioselective synthesis and ab initio calculations of fused heterocycles thermally and under microwave irradiation

Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine, triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine, and pyrimido[1,2-a]benzimidazole, pyrido[1,2-a]benzimidazole ring systems incorporating phenylsulfonyl moiety were synthesized via the reaction of 3-(N,N-dimethylamino)-1-(thiophen-2-yl)-2-(phenylsulfonyl)prop-2-en-1-one derivatives with the appropriate aminoazoles as 1,3-binucleophiles and 1H-benzimidazol-2-ylacetonitrile using conventional methods as well as microwave irradiation. The regioselectivity of the cyclocondensation reactions was confirmed both experimentally by alternative synthesis of reaction products and theoretically using ab initio quantum chemical calculations namely the Density Functional Theory (DFT). The theoretical work was carried out using the Becke, three parameter, Lee-Yang-Parr hybrid functional (B3LYP) combined with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. It was found that the final cyclocondensation reaction product depends mainly on the initial addition to the activated double bond by the nitrogen atom of the 1,3-binucleophiles that has the higher electron density.

Mechanistic studies of the tyrosinase-catalyzed oxidative cyclocondensation of 2-aminophenol to 2-aminophenoxazin-3-one

Tyrosinase (EC 1.14.18.1) catalyzes the monophenolase and diphenolase reaction associated with vertebrate pigmentation and fruit/vegetable browning. Tyrosinase is an oxygen-dependent, dicopper enzyme that has three states: Emet, Eoxy, and Edeoxy. The diphenolase activity can be carried out by both the met and the oxy states of the enzyme while neither mono- nor diphenolase activity results from the deoxy state. In this study, the oxidative cyclocondensation of 2-aminophenol (OAP) to the corresponding 2-aminophenoxazin-3-one (APX) by mushroom tyrosinase was investigated. Using a combination of various steady- and pre-steady state methodologies, we have investigated the kinetic and chemical mechanism of this reaction. The kcat for OAP is 75 ± 2s(-1), K(OAP)M = 1.8 ± 0.2mM, K(O2)M =25 ± 4 μM with substrates binding in a steady-state preferred fashion. Stopped flow and global analysis support a model where OAP preferentially binds to the oxy form over the met (k7 ≫ k1). For the met form, His269 and His61 are the proposed bases, while the oxy form uses the copper-peroxide and His61 for the sequential deprotonation of anilinic and phenolic hydrogens. Solvent KIEs show proton transfer to be increasingly rate limiting for kcat/K(OAP)M as [O2] → 0 μM (1.38 ± 0.06) decreasing to 0.83 ± 0.03 as [O2] → ∞ reflecting a partially rate limiting μ-OH bond cleavage (E met) and formation (E oxy) following protonation in the transition state. The coupling and cyclization reactions of o-quinone imine and OAP pass through a phenyliminocyclohexadione intermediate to APX, forming at a rate of 6.91 ± 0.03 μM(-1)s(-1) and 2.59E-2 ± 5.31E-4s(-1). Differences in reactivity attributed to the anilinic moiety of OAP with o-diphenols are discussed.