Design, synthesis, and evaluation of 2-aryl-7-(3',4'-dialkoxyphenyl)-pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines as novel PDE-4 inhibitors.

Described herein is design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel series of 2-aryl-7-(3',4'-dialkoxyphenyl)-pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines acting as inhibitors of type 4 phosphodiesterase (PDE4) which is known as a good target for the treatment of asthma and COPD. For this purpose, structure optimization was conducted with the aid of structure-based drug design using the known X-ray crystallography. Also, biological effects of these compounds on the target enzyme were evaluated by using in vitro assays, leading to the potent and selective PDE-4 inhibitor (IC(50)<10nM). Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.