Years after the first report on 1,4-dihydropyridines (1,4-DHPs) and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidines (1,2,3,4-THPMs) appeared, they  are revisited as plausible therapeutic agents. This is mainly due to the convenient methods that exist for their synthesis and the diverse pharmacologic properties that these scaffolds present. 1,4-Dihydropyridines and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidines are usually regarded as analogous in several aspects. They are both prepared in multi-component reactions using very similar starting materials and synthesis protocols. This leads to common structural features between 1,4-DHPs and 1,2,3,4-THPMs, as well several related biological effects. For example, they share many pharmacological features such as analgesic, anti-tumor, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitubercular, antibacterial, cardiovascular and adrenoceptor blocking activities. Numerous reviews have been devoted to the chemistry and cardiovascular effects of these compounds.  However, the lack of a comprehensive literature overview on the chemotherapeutic ability of these scaffolds  is behind the present attempt to provide a detailed survey of 1,4-DHPs and 1,2,3,4-THPMs and their structural features as chemotherapeutic agents.This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see “For Readers”) may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue’s contents page.

A new series of 1,2,3‐triazole–(thio)barbituric acid hybrids 8a–n was designed and synthesized on the basis of potent pharmacophores with urease inhibitory activity. Therefore, these compounds were evaluated against Helicobacter pylori urease. The obtained result demonstrated that all the synthesized compounds, 8a–n, were more potent than the standard urease inhibitor, hydroxyurea. Moreover, among them, compounds 8a, 8c–e, 8g,h, and 8k,l exhibited higher urease inhibitory activities than the other standard inhibitor used: thiourea. Docking studies were performed with the synthesized compounds. Furthermore, molecular dynamic simulation of the most potent compounds, 8e and 8l, showed that these compounds interacted with the conserved residues Cys592 and His593, which belong to the active site flap and are essential for enzymatic activity. These interactions have two consequences: (a) blocking the movement of a flap at the entrance of the active site channel and (b) stabilizing the closed active site flap conformation, which significantly reduces the catalytic activity of urease. Calculation of the physicochemical and topological properties of the synthesized compounds 8a–n predicted that all these compounds can be orally active. The ADME prediction of compounds 8a–n was also performed.

The urease enzyme, a metalloenzyme having Ni 2+ ions, is recognized in some bacteria, fungi, and plants. Particularly, it is vital to the progress of infections induced by pathogenic microbes, such as Proteus mirabilis and Helicobacter pylori. Herein, we reported the synthesis of a series of tetrahydropyrimidine derivatives and evaluated their antiurease activity. Finally, quantitative and qualitative analyses of the derivatives were performed via in silico studies. Urease inhibitory activity was determined as the reaction of H. pylori urease with different concentrations of compounds, and thiourea was used as a standard compound. Docking and dynamics methodologies were applied to study the interactions of the best compounds with the amino acids in the active site. All compounds showed good to excellent antiurease activity. The potent compounds were not cytotoxic against the HUVEC normal cell line. Based on the docking study, compound 4e with the highest urease inhibitory activity (IC 50 = 6.81 ± 1.42 µM) showed chelates with both Ni 2+ ions of the urease active site. Further, compound 4f displayed a very good inhibitory activity (IC 50 = 8.45 ± 1.64 μM) in comparison to thiourea (IC 50 = 22.03 ± 1.24 μM). The molecular docking and dynamics simulation results were correlated with the in vitro assay results. Moreover, the derivatives 4a-n followed Lipinski's rule-of-five and had drug-likeness properties.

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Highly diastereoselective synthesis of chromeno β-lactam hybrids was achieved by an efficient one-pot three-component reaction. With this procedure, the desired β-lactam products were obtained in good yields and with exclusive cis stereoselection, by combining a variety of benzaldehydes, malononitrile, and either 5,5-dimethylcyclohexane-1,3-dione or 4hydroxycoumarin in the presence of 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane under reflux conditions. These adducts were structurally characterized on the basis of IR, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR spectral data and elemental analysis. Each of the synthesized compounds was screened for anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities. β-Lactams 5b and 8b showed a 53.4 and 19.8 anti-inflammatory ratio, respectively, and 5b appeared more active than the well-known dexamethasone corticosteroid used for the treatment of rheumatoid and skin inflammation. β-Lactams 5a, 5b, 5e, 5f, 5g, 8c, 8j and 8p also showed good antitumor activity against the SW1116 (colon cancer) cell line without notable cytotoxicity towards the HepG2 control cell line.