Benzimidazole: An emerging scaffold for analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents

•Benzimidazole an indispensable anchor for development of new therapeutic agents.•Structural requirements of benzimidazoles for analgesic anti-inflammatory activity.•Benzimidazoles acting on different clinically approved targets.•Some opinions to design potent and safer analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents.

Within the vast range of heterocycles, benzimidazole and its derivatives are found to be trendy structures employed for discovery of drugs in the field of pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry. The unique structural features of benzimidazole and a wide range of biological activities of its derivatives made it privileged structure in drug discovery. Recently, benzimidazole scaffold has emerged as a pharmacophore of choice for designing analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents active on different clinically approved targets. To pave the way for future research, there is a need to collect the latest information in this promising area. In the present review we have collated published reports on this versatile core to provide an insight so that its full therapeutic potential can be utilized for the treatment of pain and inflammation.

Graphical abstractBenzimidazole is a privileged structure in medicinal chemistry recently emerged as pharmacophore of choice for designing analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents acting on different clinically approved targets for pain and inflammation.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide