Bis-pyrimidine Derivatives: Synthesis and Impact of Olefinic/Aromatic Linkers on Antimicrobial and DNA Photocleavage Activity.

Pyrimidine ring is an integral constituent of many natural biological systems, and pyrimidine derivatives have numerous synthetic and biological applications; therefore, there is great interest in the synthesis of pyrimidines for commercial purposes from pharmaceutical industry. In this work, a simple, efficient, and convenient methodology was developed for the synthesis of two series of bis-pyrimidine derivatives by the reaction of bis-chalcones with guanidine hydrochloride or thiourea under basic conditions. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their antimicrobial and DNA photocleavage activity, and compounds of both series showed excellent potencies, especially those containing sulfur. It was also found that the antimicrobial activity strongly depended on the size and orientation of the olefinic/aromatic linker. The synthesized com-pounds showed excellent DNA photocleavage activity under UV light, which makes them promising from the viewpoint of anticancer drug discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]