The synthesis of pyrimidines is a very active area of research, due to the wide applicability of such compounds in pharmaceutical or coordination chemistry. The recent advances since the most recent reviews (2008/2009) are collected here, demonstrating the surge of creativity that this domain has experienced during the last seven years.

An efficient E-selective semihydrogenation of internal alkynes was developed under low dihydrogen pressure and low reaction temperature from commercially available reagents: Cl2Pd(PPh3)2, Zn 0 and ZnI2. Kinetic studies and control experiments underline the significant role of ZnI2 in this process under H2 atmosphere, establishing that the transformation involves synhydrogenation followed by isomerization. This simple and easy-to-handle system provides a route to E-alkenes under mild conditions.

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In line with a recent study of the pharmacological potential of bioinspired synthetic acetylenic lipids, after identification of the terminal dialkynylcarbinol (DAC) and butadiynyl alkynylcarbinol (BAC) moieties as functional antitumor pharmacophoric units, this work specifically addresses the issue of carbon backbone length. A systematic variation of the aliphatic chain length was thus carried out in both the DAC and BAC series. The critical impact of the length of the lipidic skeleton was first confirmed in the racemic series, with the highest cytotoxic activity observed for C to C backbones. Enantiomerically enriched samples were prepared by asymmetric synthesis of the optimal C DAC and C BAC derivatives. Samples with upgraded enantiomeric purity were alternatively produced by enzymatic kinetic resolution. Eutomers possessing the S configuration displayed cytotoxicity IC values as low as 15 nm against HCT116 cancer cells, the highest level of activity reached to date in this series.

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