Pyrazolopyrimidines as Anticancer Agents; Syntheses and Mode of Action (Review Article)

Pyrazolopyrimidines are composed of a pyrazole ring fused with pyrimidine moiety, unlike the imidazole moiety in purines; they are initially reported as adenosine receptor antagonists. Different methods of synthesis of substituted pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines and pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines have been reported with a survey of their biological activities especially anti-cancer activity. During the last two decades, pyrazolopyrimidines have gained great attention as biologically active compounds; they are reported to have anti-cancer activity, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperuricemia, anti-viral and anti-hypertensive activities. Researchers paid great attention to pyrazolopyrimidines due to their high anti-cancer activity, so they tried to prepare new derivatives and examine their anti-cancer activity. In this review we are going to focus on the different methods used for the synthesis of pyrazolopyrimidines, their anticancer activities as well as their reported mode of action.