Background and Purpose
Because of gastrointestinal irritation and kidney toxicity associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the cardiovascular problems of Coxibs use, developing novel anti-inflammatory agents with reduced toxicity and improved selectivity remains a major challenge. Depending on our previous work, a novel series of pyridopyrimidinones
IIIa-i
has been synthesized via reaction of 6-amino-2-thioxo-2,3-dihydro-1
H
-pyrimidin-4-one (
I
) and phenyldiazenyl aromatic aldehydes (
IIa-i
). All the new constructed compounds were fully characterized by elemental and spectral analysis.
Methods
The target compounds
IIIa–i
were investigated for their potential towards COX inhibition, anti-inflammatory properties using carrageenan induced edema model in rat paw, and the ulcer indices of the most active members.
Results
The ethyl pyridopyrmidinone-benzoates
IIIf, IIIg
and
IIIh
showed superior inhibitory activity of carrageenan induced edema to celecoxib. Furthermore, the pyridopyrimidinones
IIId, IIIf, IIIg
, and
IIIi
exerted improved COX-2 inhibitory activity (IC
50
= 0.67–1.02 µM) comparing to celecoxib (IC
50
= 1.11 µM). Moreover, the gastric ulcerogenic potential assay of compounds
IIIf
–
h
revealed their lower ulcerogenic liability than indomethacin with comparable effect to celecoxib.
Conclusion
Virtual docking investigation of the most active candidates
IIId, IIIf, IIIg
and
IIIi
in the active site of COX-2 enzyme showed that these compounds implied interaction and binding motif similar to the cocrystallized ligand bromocelecoxib.