Keywords: 2(3H)-Furanones, polyamide, diazines, and triazines
IntroductionThe rapid assembly of "drug-like" core templates is fundamental to the discovery phase of many medicinal chemistry programs. If the syntheses of these core templates will allow for their ready functionalization, a meaningful SAR study can be efficiently conducted. In addition to ready assembly and core functionalization, the core template should have relatively low molecular weight and log P. [1,2] This will allow room for the molecule to grow as functionalization is incorporated, thus allowing the targeting of the many essential criteria of drug candidates including selectivity, potency, and efficacy. We identified compounds 5a-d, 6a-d, 8a-d, and 10a-d as attractive molecular scaffolds for our medicinal chemistry program since both platforms are relatively novel in the patent literature, compatible with our pharmacophore model and have relatively low starting molecular weights and calculated log P values. Over the past two decades, 2(3H)-furanones have attracted strong interest from our group [3][4][5][6][7][8], because of possible applications of the corresponding biologically active compounds [9,10]. Nitrogen heterocycles constitute an important class of natural and non-natural products many of which exhibit useful biological activity [11][12][13][14]. Isatin 1, and a number of its derivatives, possess a reactive ketocarbonyl group that readily undergoes condensation reactions under mild conditions [15a]. It was
Results and DiscussionPreviously, 2(3H)-furanones [7] and 2(5H)-furanones [10] have proven to be good synthons for different, highly biological active heterocyclic compounds. Recently, 2(3H)-furanones 3a-d bearing the indole nucleus were converted into amides, pyrrolones, and imidazoles [8]. Several attempts to modify the functional groups in furanones have been made; e.g. transformation of carbonyl groups into the corresponding C=S moieties using Lawesson's reagent [7]. As part of our previous investigation on 2-(3H)-furanones [3][4][5][6][7], the preparation of (3E)-1-acetyl-3(5-aryl-2-oxofuran-3(2H)-ylidene)-1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-ones 3a-d was described by one of us [8]. This was consistent to the result described by Long et al.who studied monosubstituted 3-methyleneoxindoles and detected for most of them only the E-isomer [10]. We haved examined the reactivity of 2(3H)-furanones 3a-d towards some nitrogen nucleophiles [5,6,8].We are pleased to report herein a facile method for the synthesis of mono and diamides of biologically important pyrimidines 5a-d and 6a-d via reaction with one and two mole equivalents of 2(3H)-furanones 3a-d and with one mole equivalent of trimethoprime 2 in ethanol in good to excellent yields (64-80%). There have not been reports of the synthesis of the ring systems 5a-d and 6a-d in the chemical literature. The reaction of 2(3H)-furanones 3a-d with trimethoprime 4 in 1:1 mole ratio, refluxing in ethanol over 12 h, afforded monoamido 1,3-diazines 3a-d in 64-80% yield (Scheme 1). In contrast, the 1...