Design, synthesis and structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies of imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine derived purine isosteres and their potential as cytotoxic agents

•Regioselective synthesis of some purine isosters (arylated/heteroarylated imidazo[4,5-b]pyridines) as potent anticancer agents.•(Ataphos)PdCl2 catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reaction.•SAR studies of the synthesized arylated/heteroarylated imidazo[4,5-b]pyridines.•Evaluation of microsomal stability of the newly synthesized compounds.•Analogue 6b displayed strong cytotoxicity and good microsomal stability.

Drug resistance to chemotherapeutic agents paved the way to develop novel synthetic molecules which are active on MDR cancer cell lines. Regio-isomeric imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine analogues were synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against a range of cancer cell lines. The structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies of the imidazopyridine analogues are also described. Analogue 6b displayed strong cytotoxicity and good microsomal stability.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide