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Combretastatin A-4 (CA-4) in phosphate and serine pro-drug forms is under phase II clinical trials. With our interest of discovering CA-4 inspired new chemical entities, a novel series of 4,5-diaryl-2-aminoimidazole analogues of the compound was designed and synthesized by an efficient and diversity feasible route involving atom economical arene C-H bond arylation. Interestingly, four compounds showed potent cell-based antiproliferative activities in nanomolar concentrations. Among the compounds, compound 12 inhibited the proliferation of several types of cancer cells much more efficiently than CA-4. It depolymerized microtubules, induced spindle defects, and stalled mitosis in cells. Compound 12 bound to tubulin and inhibited the polymerization of tubulin in vitro. In addition, podophyllotoxin and CA-4 inhibited the binding of compound 12 to tubulin. The distinctive pharmacophoric features of the bridging motif as well as quinoline nucleus were explored. We noted also a valuable quality of compound 12 as a potential probe in characterizing new CA-4 analogues.

A pathway of desilylative activation of TMSCN as a functional isonitrile equivalent, and DABCO-THF as an appropriate system for activation in a chemoselective Strecker-Ugi type reaction, has rendered ethyl glyoxalate and various heterocyclic-2-amidines as feasible substrates, and afforded the successful synthesis of 3-amino-2-carboxyethyl substituted fused imidazoles as useful building blocks. This class of functional scaffold has provided, via construction of the fused pyrimidinone motif, the synthesis of biologically important C8-N9 annulated purines, adenines and their oxo/thio analogs. This new approach is convenient and flexible for the preparation of versatile purine-condensed heterocycles.

Concerted metalation deprotonation (CMD) approach with appropriate proton shuttle precursor, base, and solvent (PivOH-K(2)CO(3)-toluene) has rendered a regioselective Pd-catalyzed C6-arylation of 3-aminoimidazo[1,2-a]pyrazine, a therapeutically relevant scaffold accessible by multicomponent reaction. The arylation of this heteroarene suffers from competing C5 and C2'-arylation reactions, while the developed process has virtually eliminated these competing arylations. Density functional calculations for CMD C-H activation at C6, C5, C8, and C2' sites imply that the energy barrier with distortion energy penalty as major contributing component influences the regioselectivity.

The catalytic efficiency of mixed Cu(I)-Cu(II) system in situ generated by partial reduction of CuSO(4) with glucose in ethanol (nonanhydrous) under open air has been explored. With this catalysis, the multicomponent cascade reaction of A(3)-coupling of heterocyclic amidine with aldehyde and alkyne, 5-exo-dig cycloisomerization, and prototropic shift has afforded an efficient and eco-friendly synthesis of therapeutically important versatile N-fused imidazoles. Diverse heterocyclic amidines, several of which are known to be poorly reactive, and aldehydes are compatible in this catalytic process.

On the basis of structures of known topoisomerase II catalytic inhibitors and initial molecular docking studies, bicyclic N-fused aminoimidazoles were predicted as potential topoisomerase II inhibitors. They were synthesized by multicomponent reactions and evaluated against human topoisomerase IIα (hTopoIIα) in decatenation, relaxation, cleavage complex, and DNA intercalation in vitro assays. Among 31 compounds of eight different bicyclic scaffolds, it was found that imidazopyridine, imidazopyrazole, and imidazopyrazine with suitable substituents exhibited potent inhibition of catalytic activity of hTopoIIα while not showing DNA intercalation. Molecular docking studies and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation analysis, ATPase-kinetics and ATP-dependent plasmid relaxation assay revealed the catalytic mode of inhibition of the title compounds plausibly by blocking the ATP-binding site. N-Fused aminoimidazoles showed potent anticancer activities in kidney and breast cancer cell lines, low toxicity to normal cells, relatively higher potency compared to etoposide and 5-fluorouracil in kidney cancer cell lines, and potent inhibition in cell migration. These compounds were found to exert apoptotic effect in G1/S phase.

Abstract: A multicomponent method for scaffold-modification of nucleobases (adenine, guanine, and cytosine) was developed. This modification approach, as an alternative to usual synthetic routes involving protection–deprotection or SNAr of halo (or leaving group-equivalent)-purines, affords in one step therapeutically-relevant substituted aminoimidazole-[i]-condensed adenine, [b]-condensed guanine, [c]-condensed cytosine. These derived nucleobases possess enhanced lipophilicity and solubility and contain the functionalities useful for further chemical manipulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Desilylative Activation of TMSCN in Chemoselective Strecker-Ugi Type Reaction: Functional Fused Imidazoles as Building Blocks as an Entry Route to Annulated Purines" by S. K. Guchhait is presented.