Synthesis of Novel Uracil Non‐Nucleoside Derivatives as Potential Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors of HIV‐1

Novel emivirine and TNK-651 analogues 5a-d were synthesized by reaction of chloromethyl ethyl ether and / or benzyl chloromethyl ether, respectively, with uracils having 5-ethyl and 6-(4-methylbenzyl) or 6-(3,4-dimethoxybenzyl) substituents. A series of new uracil non-nucleosides substituted at N-1 with cyclopropylmethyloxymethyl 9a-d, 2-phenylethyloxymethyl 9e-h, and 3-phenylprop-1-yloxymethyl 9i-l were prepared on treatment of the corresponding uracils with the appropriate acetals 8a-c. Some of the tested compounds showed good activity against HIV-1 wild type. Among them, 1-cyclopropylmethyloxymethyl-5-ethyl-6-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)uracil 9c and 5-ethyl-6-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)-1-(2-phenylethyloxymethyl)uracil 9g showed inhibitory potency equally to emivirine against HIV-1 wild type. Furthermore, compounds 9c and 9g showed marginal better activity against NNRTI resistant mutants than emivirine.