Computational study of some details of the cyclization reaction between 3,5-diacetyl-2,6-dimethylpyridine and salicylic aldehyde in an acidic medium was performed by the DFT RB3LYP/6-31G method using the Gaussian-2016 software package. It was shown that protonation of the pyridine nitrogen atom leads to a significant increase in the charge of the hydrogen atom of the 2-methyl group of pyridine and the methyl acetyl group. This leads to the growth of the methyl group CH-acidity and enolization of the acetyl group. It was also found that the protonated tautomeric enol form of 3,5-diacetyl-2,6-dimethylpyridine gives a stable pre-reaction complex with salicylic aldehyde due to the formation of three hydrogen bonds. The formation of this pre-reaction complex, apparently, leads to the implementation of the Knoevenagel reaction, instead of the alternative possible Claisen-Schmidt reaction of salicylic aldehyde at the acetyl group of pyridine. The possible biological activity of the previously obtained cyclization products was evaluated by molecular docking using the AutoDock Vina software. Some cyclization products showed higher values of the binding affinity with the selected target proteins in comparison with the known antiviral drugs Nevirapine and Favipiravir. The results obtained confirm the correctness of the proposed cyclization mechanism between 3,5-diacetyl-2,6-dimethylpyridine and salicylic aldehyde. This also makes it possible to assess the prospects of previously obtained derivatives of epoxybenzo [7,8]oxocino [4,3-b]pyridine as synthetic analogs of natural integrastatins A, B for further synthesis and study of their antiviral activity.

The reaction of 3,5-diacetyl-2,6-dimethylpyridine with substituted salicylic aldehydes leads to the formation of the epoxybenzooxocine ring. Oxidation of the methylene group with H2SeO3 opens ways to obtaining structural analogs of natural integrastatins A, B.

The COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing as of mid-2022 and requires the development of new therapeutic drugs, because the existing clinically approved drugs are limited. In this work, seven derivatives of epoxybenzooxocinopyridine were synthesized and tested for the ability to inhibit the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell cultures. Among the described compounds, six were not able to suppress the SARS-CoV-2 virus’ replication. One compound, which is a derivative of epoxybenzooxocinopyridine with an attached side group of 3,4-dihydroquinoxalin-2-one, demonstrated antiviral activity comparable to that of one pharmaceutical drug. The described compound is a prospective lead substance, because the half-maximal effective concentration is 2.23 μg/μL, which is within a pharmacologically achievable range.

No abstract

The multicomponent reaction of 2-nitroacetophenone (or nitroacetone), acetaldehyde diethyl acetal, β-dicarbonyl compound, and ammonium acetate in an acetic acid solution allowed the acquisition of previously undescribed 4-methyl-substituted derivatives of 5-nitro-1,4-dihydropyridine in satisfactory yields. The oxidation of the obtained 5-nitro-1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives resulted in the corresponding 2,4-dimethyl-5-nitropyridines. In addition, for the first time in the synthesis of unsymmetrical 1,4-dihydropyridines by the Hantzsch reaction acetaldehyde, diethyl acetal was used as a source of acetaldehyde. The use of more volatile and sufficiently reactive acetaldehyde in this reaction did not lead to a controlled synthesis of unsymmetrical 5-nitro-1,4-dihydropyridines. The proposed multicomponent approach to the synthesis of 4-methyl-substituted 5-nitro-1,4-dihydropyridines and their subsequent aromatization into pyridines made it possible to obtain previously undescribed and hardly accessible substituted 5(3)-nitropyridines.