N-substitution Reactions of 2-Aminobenzimidazoles to Access Pharmacophores

Benzimidazole (BI) and its derivatives are interesting molecules in medicinal chemistry because several of these compounds have a diversity of biological activities and some of them are even used in clinical applications. In view of the importance of these compounds, synthetic chemists are still interested in finding new procedures for the synthesis of these classes of compounds. Astemizole (antihistaminic), Omeprazole (antiulcerative), and Rabendazole (fungicide) are important examples of compounds used in medicinal chemistry containing BI nuclei. It is interesting to observe that several of these compounds contain 2-aminobenzimidazole (2ABI) as the base nucleus. The structures of 2ABI derivatives are interesting because they have a planar delocalized structure with a cyclic guanidine group, which have three nitrogen atoms with free lone pairs and labile hydrogen atoms. The 10-π electron system of the aromatic BI ring conjugated with the nitrogen lone pair of the hexocyclic amino group, making these heterocycles to have an amphoteric character. Synthetic chemists have used 2ABI as a building block to produce BI derivatives as medicinally important molecules. In view of the importance of the BIs, and because no review was found in the literature about this topic, we reviewed and summarized the procedures related to the recent methodologies used in the N-substitution reactions of 2ABIs by using aliphatic and aromatic halogenides, dihalogenides, acid chlorides, alkylsulfonic chlorides, carboxylic acids, esters, ethyl chloroformates, anhydrides, SMe-isothioureas, alcohols, alkyl cyanates, thiocyanates, carbon disulfide and aldehydes or ketones to form Schiff bases. The use of diazotized 2ABI as intermediate to obtain 2-diazoBIs was included to produce Nsubstituted 2ABIs of pharmacological interest. Some commentaries about their biological activity were included.