Molecular design, synthesis and biological evaluation of BP-O-DAPY and O-DAPY derivatives as non-nucleoside HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors

• Hybrid the special structural features of diarylpyrimidines and benzophenones.
• Synthesize a series of BP-O-DAPY hybrids and O-DAPY derivatives as NNRTIs.
• Evaluate of the synthesized compounds against HIV-1 and HIV-2.
• Study the potential binding mode by molecular docking.

This paper reports the synthesis and antiviral evaluation of a series of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) that combine the peculiar structural features of diarylpyrimidine derivatives (DAPYs) and benzophenone derivatives (BPs). The DAPY derivatives bearing benzoyl or alkoxyl substitutes on the A-ring showed the inhibitory activity against wild-type HIV-1 at the cellular level within the range of EC50 values from micromolar to nanomolar. Among these compounds, 1u exhibited the most potent anti-HIV-1 activity (EC50 = 0.06 ± 0.01 μM, SI > 6260), which were about 1.8-fold more active than nevirapine (NVP) and delavirdine (DLV). In addition, the binding modes with HIV-1 RT and the preliminary SAR studies of these derivatives were also considered for further investigation.

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