Synthesis of dihydropyrimidine α,γ-diketobutanoic acid derivatives targeting HIV integrase

• Synthesis of novel dihydropyrimidinone and thiopyrimidine aryl α,γ-diketobutanoic acids.
• Biginelli multicomponent reaction was the key step.
• Docking studies for all the compounds into X-ray crystal structure of HIV-IN.
• IC50 values of some molecules were in the low nanomolar range against HIV-IN.

The synthesis and antiviral evaluation of a series of dihydropyrimidinone and thiopyrimidine derivatives bearing aryl α,γ-diketobutanoic acid moiety are described using the Biginelli multicomponent reaction as key step. The most active among 20 synthesized novel compounds were 4c, 4d and 5b, which possess nanomolar HIV-1 integrase (IN) stand transfer (ST) inhibition activities. In order to understand their mode of interactions within the IN active site, we docked all the compounds into the previously reported X-ray crystal structure of IN. We observed that compounds 4c, 4d and 5b occupied an area close to the two catalytic Mg2+ ions surrounded by their chelating triad (E221, D128 and D185), DC16, Y212 and the β-diketo acid moiety of 4c, 4d and 5b chelating Mg2+. As those compounds lack anti-HIV activities in cell, their prodrugs were synthetized. The prodrug 4c′ exhibited an anti-HIV activity of 0.19 μM in primary human lymphocytes with some cytotoxicity. All together, these results indicate that the new analogs potentially interact within the catalytic site with highly conserved residues important for IN catalytic activity.

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