Pyrimidine ring is the building unit of DNA and RNA and thus pyrimidine based chemical architectures exhibit diverse pharmacological activities. Among the reported medicinal attributes of pyrimidines, anticancer activity is the most extensively reported. The anticancer potential of pyrimidines in fused scaffolds has also been evidenced through number of research article and patent literature. The pyrimidines based scaffolds have exerted their cell killing effects through varied mechanisms which indicate their potential to interact with diverse enzymes/ targets/receptors. This review article strictly focuses on the patent literature from 2009 onwards. The structure of the potent compounds, their IC50 values, models/assays used for the anticancer evaluation and the enzymes/ receptors/ targets involved have been presented in this compilation. Significant number of patents i.e. 59 have been published on pyrimidine based anticancer agents from 2009-2014 (from 2009 through the present date) which clearly indicate that this heterocycle is an area of focus at present for researchers all over the globe. Moreover, out of the 59 patents published during this period, 32 have been published from 2012 onwards which further highlights the present interest of the researcher towards pyrimidine based anticancer agents. The promising activity displayed by these pyrimidine based scaffolds clearly places them in forefront as potential future drug candidates. The present compilation can be extremely beneficial for the medicinal chemists working on design and synthesis of anticancer drugs.

A series of 4-aryl/heteroaryl-4H-fused pyrans was synthesized via multicomponent reaction in a microwave synthesizer. All the pyrans were evaluated for in vitro xanthine oxidase inhibition. Structure-activity relationship was also established. Among the series of 108 compounds, Compound 5n was the most potent displaying remarkable inhibition against the enzyme with an IC 50 value of 0.59 lM. Enzyme kinetic study was carried out for the compound 5n to determine the type of inhibition. The study revealed that the compound 5n was a mixed-type inhibitor. Molecular modelling studies were also performed to figure out the interactions of both the enantiomers of 5n with the amino acid residues of the enzyme. Graphical Abstract

Preliminary biological data on 7-anilino-6-azaindoles (8-11) suggested that hydrophobic substituents at C7 contribute to enhancement of antiproliferative activity. A novel series of 7-aryl-6-azaindole-1-benzenesulfonamides (12-22) were developed and showed improved cytotoxicity compared to ABT751 (5). The conversion of C7 phenyl rings into C7 heterocycles led to a remarkable improvement of antiproliferative activity. Among all the synthetic products, 7-(2-furanyl)-1-(4-methoxybenzenesulfonyl)-6-azaindole (21) exhibited the most potent anticancer activity against KB, HT29, MKN45, and H460 cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 21.1, 32.0, 27.5, and 40.0 nM, respectively. Bioassays indicated that 21 not only inhibits tubulin polymerization by binding to tubulin at the colchicine binding site but also arrests the cell cycle at the G2/M phase with slight arrest at the sub-G1 phase. Compound 21 also functions as a vascular disrupting agent and dose-dependently inhibits tumor growth without significant change of body weight in an HT29 xenograft mouse model. Taken together, compound 21 has potential for further development as a novel class of anticancer agents.

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BackgroundThe combretastatins are a class of natural stilbenoids. These molecules generally share three common structural features: a trimethoxy "A"-ring, a "B"-ring containing substituent often at C3′ and C4′, and an ethene bridge between the two rings, which provides necessary structural rigidity. Members of the combretastatin family possess varying ability to cause vascular disruption in tumors. Combretastatin binds to the colchicine binding site of β-subunit of tubulin. Despite having a similar name, combretastatin is unrelated to statins, a family of cholesterol-lowering drugs.ResultsNew combretastatin 2-(1-acetyl-1H-indole-3-yl)-3-(phenyl) propenoic analogues (2a to 2y), bearing indole moiety at the place of ring A of combretastatin (CA4), were synthesized and evaluated for anticancer activity against various cancer cell lines such as THP-1 (leukemia), A-549 (lung), IGROV-1 (ovary), HEP-2 (liver), MCF-7 (breast), and DU-145 (prostate). Compound 2d showed anti-cancer activity against THP-1 and MCF-7 with IC50 0.80 and 0.37 μM, respectively, and 2y showed against MCF-7 with IC50 3.60 μM comparable to paclitaxel.ConclusionsThe target compounds bind to the colchicine binding site which is situated at α and β interface of tubulin and prevent polymerization as it was confirmed by immunofluorescence technique. The molecular docking further confirmed the binding of the potent compound 2d to the colchicine binding site at α and β interface of tubulin.