The unsaturated acyclic nucleoside analogues bearing a sterically constrained (Z)-4'-benzamido-2'-butenyl moiety: Synthesis, X-ray crystal structure study, cytostatic and antiviral activity evaluations.

A series of the novel acyclic unsaturated pyrimidine (1-12) and adenine (13) nucleoside analogues bearing conformationally restricted (Z)-2'-butenyl moiety were synthesized and evaluated for their antiviral and cytostatic activity potency against malignant tumor cell lines and normal human fibroblast (WI38). The N-1 and/or N-3 acyclic side chain substitution in pyrimidine ring in N-3 substituted 5-trifluoromethyluracil derivative (11), N-1, N-3 disubstituted 5-fluorouracil derivative (12) and adenine derivative (13) was deduced from their (1)H and (13)C NMR spectra and confirmed by single crystal X-ray structure analysis. The X-ray crystal structure analysis 11-13 revealed also supramolecular self-assemblies, in which infinite chains or dimers built two- and three-dimensional networks. The results of the in vitro cytostatic activity evaluations of 1-13 indicate that the majority of the compounds tested exhibited a non-specific and moderate antiproliferative effect at the highest concentration (100 microM). Of all evaluated compounds on the cell lines tested only the N-1 4''-fluoro-substituted-benzamide uracil derivative (7) showed rather marked and selective inhibitory activity against the growth of MCF-7 cells at a concentration of 2.7 microM and no cytotoxic effect on normal fibroblasts WI38. This compound can be therefore considered as a potential antitumor lead compound for further synthetic structure modification. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.