An improved synthesis of 3-(substituted)pyrimido [4,5-c]pyridazine-5,7(1H,6H)-diones, a known subclass of 4-deazatoxoflavins, is reported. The approach involves treatment of 3-methyl-6-(1-methylhydrazinyl) uracil with representative phenyl and alkyl glyoxal monohydrates, which in turn are obtained by selenium dioxide oxidation of the corresponding phenyl and alkyl methyl ketones. The first entry into 4-monosubstituted isomers is also reported.
KeywordsPyrimido [4,5-c]pyridazine-57(1H6H)-dione; 4-Deazatoxoflavin; Phenylglyoxal; Cyclizations; 6-(1-Methylhydrazinyl)uracil 1,6-Dimethylpyrimido[4,5-c]pyridazine-5,7(1H,6H)-dione, also known as 4-deazatoxoflavin, and its 3,4-disubstituted analogues have been shown to serve as biomimetics of flavin and 5-deazaflavin in their ability to oxidize amines to carbonyl compounds 1 and to abstract hydrogen equivalents from hydrogen donors under certain conditions (Fig. 1). 2 4-Deazatoxoflavin itself has also demonstrated both inhibitory activity against Pseudomonas and DNA-binding properties 3 while not displaying the generalized cytotoxicity that is characteristic of toxoflavin. 4 There are scattered reports of 3,4-disubstituted 3,5 and 3-mono-substituted 2,6 analogues of 4-deazatoxo flavin, but no reports of 4-monosubstituted analogues. The described syntheses of 3-monosubstitued analogues generally proceed in poor yields and via pathways that produce alternate products. Our goal was to develop an improved synthesis that would lead to clean products and possess generality for a wide range of analogues for biological testing.Our strategy is based on the known reaction of 6-(1-methylhydrazinyl) uracil with glyoxal and α-diketones to yield 3,4-unsubstituted-and 3,4-disubstituted-pyrimido[4,5-c]pyridazine-5,7 (1H,6H)-diones, respectively.3 Despite these prior examples, there are no reports of reaction between this or related 6-(hydrazinyl)uracils and unsymmetrical alkyl or aryl glyoxals. We imagined that reaction could occur by several manifolds. One could proceed via initial hydrazone formation onto either one or both of the aldehyde or ketone moieties, or as is often the case for 6-aminouracils, 7 by nucleophilic attack by the 5-position of the uracil onto either glyoxal carbonyl. Thus, we set out to evaluate a number of reaction conditions to determine if regiochemical preferences for the uracil and glyoxal reaction partners could be established. Initially, we treated 3-methyl-6-(1-methylhydrazinyl)uracil8 with phenylglyoxal monohydrate in refluxing ethanol or water and obtained the result shown in Scheme 1. Upon cooling a precipitate corresponding to ~85% of 3 was confirmed by 1 H NMR and mass spectrometry analysis, and a negative Tollens test for aldehyde. In addition to supporting spectral data, selective hydrazone formation onto the aldehyde moiety under these conditions is well precedented from prior studies on glyoxal hydrazones of methylhydrazine. 9,10 The ~15% cocrystallized impurity plus 5-10% additional material in the mother liquor corresponded to one of two...