S.V. Blokhina et al.
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 40 (2021) 127944
compounds in the aqueous and organic phases used. The aim of the
synthesis of the hybrids of thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines with (1H-1,2,4)
triazole and of the comprehensive study of their pharmaceutically
relevant physicochemical properties was to find the “structure–activity”
correlation in the series of the heterocyclic substances obtained.
Triazole oxirane was synthesized by the known method from 2,4-
difluoroacetophenone by treating it with trimethylsulfoxonium iodide
in toluene.21 The obtained amino derivative of triazole (2) is acylated
with acetyl chloride in dichloromethane to form the acetylamine de-
rivative of triazole (3) (Scheme 1).
yl]-2-hydroxy-propyl]-3-(R1,R2-phenyl)-2-thioxo-thiazolo[4,5-d]pyr-
imidin-7-one (IIIa-d), 6-[3-[4-[2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-2-hydroxy-3-
(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]propyl]-3-(R1,R2-phenyl)-
2-thioxo-thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidin-7-one (IVa-c) and 6-[2-[4-[2-(2,4-
difluorophenyl)-2-hydroxy-3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-
yl]ethyl]-3-(R1,R2-phenyl)-2-thioxo-thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidin-7-one
(Va, b).
The detailed description of synthesis of 16 novel hybrids has been
presented in Supplementary material. The purity of synthesized com-
pounds has been determined by 1H NMR and 13C NMR measurements
and all results were 95–98%. The graphical 1H NMR and 13C NMR
spectra of compounds also have been provided in Supplementary ma-
terial. The obtained hybrids thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines with 1,2,4-tria-
zole are amorphous, which was confirmed by PXRD method. As
example, the typical PXRD pattern (amorphous halo) for compound Ia
was shown in Fig. S1 (Supplementary material).
The sulfur-containing fragment in the thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines
was prepared by the known method developed by Gewald22 and
described for one of the compounds with a fluorine substituent in the
para-position of the phenyl core in position 3 of the thiazole core that
was used.23 The synthesis of the hybrids of thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines
with (1H-1,2,4)triazole (Groups I, II) was carried out according to
Scheme 2.
Sixteen novel hybrids of thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines with (1H-1,2,4)
triazole have been synthesized in this work. Their structural formulas
are shown in Fig. 1. It should be noted that in all compounds the methyl-
(a), fluoro- (b) and chloro- (c) substituents are introduced in the para
position of the phenyl ring, while the methoxy group (d) is the ortho
substituent.
As the first step, we studied and tested the scheme of synthesizing
thiazolo-pyrimidine hybrids with triazole through direct condensation
of the dihydrothiazolopyrimidine derivatives with triazole oxirane
prepared in advance. Among the possible variants of preparation of the
target products in different solvents – acetonitrile, ethanol, and toluene
with triethylamine and ammonium chloride additives – we selected
synthesis with triazole oxirane in dimethyl formamide for 2–3 days with
the formation of 6-[2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-2-hydroxy-3-(1H-1,2,4-tri-
azol-1-yl)propyl]-3-(R1,R2-phenyl)-2-thioxo-thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidin-
7-one that had not been described earlier. Three compounds with
different substituents in the phenyl ring were obtained: R1–CH3, R2–H
(Ia), R1–F, R2–H (Ib) and R1–H, R2–OCH3 (Id). Their molecular struc-
tures are shown in Scheme 2.
The bioactivity of the synthesized hybrids depends on their solubility
in pharmaceutically relevant media and lipophilicity to a large extent.
That is why we also experimentally measured the solubility of some
derivatives under study in the buffer pH 7.4 simulating the intestinal
fluid. Another important solvent used was 1-octanol, which simulates
amphipathic lipids of biological membranes. Besides, in order to study
the lipophilicity, we determined the distribution coefficients of the
compounds in the 1-octanol/buffer pH 7.4. The results are summarized
in Table 1. It is quite interesting to compare the data about the solubility
and distribution of the synthesized hybrid derivatives containing a flu-
conazole fragment in the molecular structure with the characteristics of
individual fluconazole that have been determined by us earlier25 and are
given in Table 1.
The reaction of the acetamide triazole chloro-derivative (prepared
from triazole oxirane in the process of consecutive interaction with
aqueous ammonia and then with chloroacetyl chloride in methylene
chloride) with thiazolo pyrimidines led to the formation of hybrid de-
rivatives with an amide linker (Group II). As a result, the target 6-[2-
(2,4-difluorophenyl)-2-hydroxy-3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)propyl]-2-[3-
(R1,R2-phenyl)-7-oxo-2-thioxo-thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidin-6-yl]acet-
amides (IIa-d) were obtained.
The molar solubility of the substances in the buffer pH 7.4 (logSb)
changes by three orders of magnitude depending on the linker structure
and the substituent introduced into the thiazolo-pyrimidine fragment.
And in this case, all the compounds have much lower solubility in the pH
7.4 buffer than fluconazole.
The synthesis of the thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines hybrids with (1H-
1,2,4)triazole (Groups III-V) was carried out according to Scheme 3.
A series of hybrid derivatives containing a certain linker between the
heterocycles – triazole and pyrimidino[4,5-d]thiazol – was obtained by
alkylation of the piperidine fragment imino group with haloalkyl (8).
For that purpose we used commercial haloalkyl Boc-piperazines: tert-
butyl 4-(2-bromoethyl)piperazin-1-carboxylate and tert-butyl 4-(3-bro-
mopropyl)piperazine-1-carboxylate, as well as the product of Boc-
piperazine condensation with racemic epichlorohydrin produced by
the method described in patent literature.24
An analysis of the effect of the chemical nature of the substituents in
the phenyl ring of the compounds with an acetamide linker on the sol-
ubility in the aqueous medium (logSb) has shown that the derivatives
can be arranged in the following order of increasing solubility: IIb(p-
fluoro-) < IIc(p-chloro-) < IIa(p-methyl-) < IId(o-methoxy-). It has been
established that all the synthesized substances with a methoxy-
substituent have better solubility than the methyl-derivatives. Accord-
ing to the literature data,26 the obtained result is explained by a stronger
destructive effect of the compounds with substituents in the ortho-po-
sition of the phenyl ring on the solvent structure than that of the para-
substituted derivatives.
After removing the Boc-protection from compound the obtained
products (9–11) by trifluoroacetic acid in methylene chloride, the
resulting piperazinyl thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidine derivatives (12–14)
were condensed by triazole oxirane in an alcohol with triethylamine and
ammonium chloride to obtain target derivatives: 6-[3-[4-[2-(2,4-
difluorophenyl)-2-hydroxy-3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-
The results of the study of the linker structure of the compounds’
solubility allowed us to make some conclusions about the interconnec-
tion between the molecular structure and solubility in the buffer pH 7.4.
H2
H
b. ClCOCH2Cl, NEt3, DCM
a. NH3 , H2O/EtOH = 2/5
0 oC, 12 h, 65 %
0 oC, 12 h, 80 %
OH
3
2
1
Scheme 1. Synthesis of triazole derivatives (2, 3).
2