Synthesis of the new ring system 6,8-dihydro-5H-pyrrolo[3,4-h]quinazoline

A convenient synthesis of the pyrrolo[3,4-h]quinazoline ring system is reported. Our synthetic approach consisted of the annelation of a pyrimidine ring to an isoindole moiety using tetrahydroisoindole-4-ones as building blocks. The antiproliferative activity of the new compounds was investigated and one of them showed antitumor activity against all the 59 tested cell lines at micromolar concentrations (1.46–18.4 μM).