A mini review of pyrimidine and fused pyrimidine marketed drugs

Abstract

Pyrimidine and its derivatives demonstrate a diverse array of biological and pharmacological activities including anticonvulsant, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and anticancer properties. This broad spectrum of biochemical targets has been facilitated by the synthetic versatility of pyrimidine, which has allowed the generation of a large number of structurally diverse derivatives including analogues derived from substitution of the aryl ring, and/or derivatisation of the pyrimidine nitrogen and C2/C4/C5/C6 carbon positions. Pyrimidines are synthetically versatile substrates, where they can be used for the synthesis of a large variety of heterocyclic compounds and as raw material for drug synthesis. It was therefore the objective of this review to systematically evaluate the pharmacological properties of various substituted pyrimidine and collate these findings to be used as a guide for future structure-activity relationship and mode of action studies. This is the first review to comprehensively discuss the pyrimidine and its substituted derivatives.