Groebke–Blackburn–Bienaymé multicomponent reaction in scaffold-modification of adenine, guanine, and cytosine: synthesis of aminoimidazole-condensed nucleobases

A multicomponent method for scaffold-modification of nucleobases (adenine, guanine, and cytosine) was developed. This modification approach, as an alternative to usual synthetic routes involving protection–deprotection or SNAr of halo (or leaving group-equivalent)-purines, affords in one step therapeutically-relevant substituted aminoimidazole-[i]-condensed adenine, [b]-condensed guanine, [c]-condensed cytosine. These derived nucleobases possess enhanced lipophilicity and solubility and contain the functionalities useful for further chemical manipulations.