Discovery of indole-based tetraarylimidazoles as potent inhibitors of urease with low antilipoxygenase activity.

A series of tetraarylimidazoles (5A-5O) were prepared by one pot four component condensation reactions of 2-arylindole-3-carbaldehydes, substituted anilines, benzil and ammonium acetate in acetic acid. The synthesized compounds exhibited potent antiurease activity with IC50 values ranging from 0.12 ± 0.06 μM to 29.12 ± 0.18 μM as compared with thiourea. However, low inhibition profiles were observed for lipoxygenase. The data show that tetraarylimidazoles containing a substituted 2-penylindole have emerged as a new class of potent inhibitors of urease enzyme.