Synthetic Routes and Pharmacological Activities of Purine Derivatives: A Review

The Purine moiety is regarded as the ubiquitous nitrogen-containing heterocycle in nature and is recognized as a privileged scaffold in medicinal chemistry. Moreover, the purine derivatives are heterocyclic aromatic compounds consisting of conjoined pyrimidine and imidazole moieties. Purine derivatives are involved in various metabolic processes as cofactors associated with a wide variety of enzymes and receptors. Therefore, many synthetic ways to obtain purine derivatives were developed using different reagents such as pyrimidine, imidazole, and some acyclic precursors. This article review focuses on the synthetic methodologies of purine derivatives from its first synthesis in the 19th century to this last decade and also reports a variety of proven pharmacological applications for the purine derivatives. This review offers a panoply of synthetic routes that medicinal and organic chemistry researchers can use in the preparation and design of new purine derivatives.