Synthesis and biological evaluation of 4-(hydroxyimino)arylmethyl diarylpyrimidine analogues as potential non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors against HIV.

A series of novel diarylpyrimidine analogues featuring a hydroxyiminomethyl group between the pyrimidine scaffold and the aryl wing I have been synthesized and tested in MT-4 cells culture as non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Most of these new congeners exhibited moderate to excellent activity against wild-type virus with an EC(50) value ranging from 0.569microM to 0.005microM. 4-(4-((Hydroxyimino) (3-methoxyphenyl)methyl)pyrimidin-2-ylamino)benzonitrile (12n) was identified as the most active compound of this new series (EC(50)=0.025microM, SI >1223) associated with moderate activity against HIV-1 double mutant strains (K103N+Y181C) (EC(50)=8.72microM) in addition to its anti-HIV-2 activity with an EC(50) value of 8.31microM. Preliminary structure-activity relationship (SAR) among the newly synthesized DAPYs was also investigated.