6-[(Dimethylamino)methylene]amino-1,3-dimethyl uracil 1 undergoes formal [4+2] cycloaddition reaction with non conjugated imines to give pyrimido [4,5-d]pyrimidines 3. When reacted with conjugated imines and a,b-unsaturated nitro compounds cycloaddition also occurs leading to unexpected pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines 5 and 9, respectively. Pyrimido[4,pyrimidines and pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines are an important class of annulated uracils of biological significances because of their connection with purine and pteridine systems. 1 Several patents have been reported for the preparation of these fused heterocycles, derivatives which are useful as bronchodilators, 2 vascodilators, 2 antiallergic, 2,3 antihypertensive 4 and anticancer 2 agents and recently pyrimido[4,5-d] pyrimidine analogues of folic acid have been screened for antitumor activity 5 . Therefore, for the preparation of these complex molecules, there has been remarkable interest in the synthetic manipulations of uracils. 6 Also the synthetic exploitation of the nucleophilic double bond of uracil is an undeveloped field in view of a great variety of potential products. 7 There have been reports for direct functionalisation of uracil using the C 5 -C 6 double bond via thermolytic 8 and photocycloaddition reactions. 9 The heteroannulation of uracils usually require either forcing conditions 10 or relatively longer synthetic pathways. 11 In continuation of our studies on uracil analogues 12 we now want to present a new, simple and efficient preparation of novel fused pyrimidines based on [4+2] cycloaddition reaction by exploiting the 5-6 double bond of uracil in a onepot synthesis.A new approach to the synthesis of pyrimido[4,5-d]pyrimidines reported by Wamhoff et.al. 13 is the aza-Wittigtype reaction of iminophosphoranes of 5-aminouracils with aromatic isocyanates which leads to functionalised pyrimido[4,5-d]pyrimidines. Broom et al. 14 synthesised pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine from the reaction of DMAD and 6-aminouracil in protic solvent but obtained uncyclised condensed acetylenic adduct when the reaction was carried out in DMF. Also Wamhoff's group reported substituted pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines from 6-substituted uracil via [4+2] cycloaddition with electron-deficient olefins. 15 The main disadvantages in this method are the limitation to electron-deficient olefins and the low yield due to side reactions. Hirota et al synthesised pyrido [2,3-d]pyrimidines by the palladium-mediated C-C coupling reaction of electron-deficient olefins with uracil 1 in refluxing acetic acid, 16 but they used a stoichiometric amount of expensive Pd(OAc) 2 as a coupling reagent. Our synthetic strategy utilising non conjugated and conjugated imines and b-nitro styrenes with 6-[(dimethylamino)methylene]aminouracil affords an unprecedented one-pot synthesis of pyrimido[4,5-d]pyrimidines and pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines respectively in excellent yields.
Scheme 16-[(Dimethylamino)methylene]amino-1,3-dimethyl uracil 1 was readily obtained by the reaction of 6-amino-1,3-dimethylbarbituric acid with (DMF-D...