Fragment-based approach to the design of 5-chlorouracil-linked-pyrazolo[1, 5-a][1,3,5]triazines as thymidine phosphorylase inhibitors

5-Chlorouracil-linked-pyrazolo[1,5-a][1,3,5]triazines were designed as new thymidine phosphorylase inhibitors based on the fragment based drug design approach. Multiple-step convergent synthetic schemes were devised to generate the target compounds. The intermediate 5-chloro-6-chloromethyluracil was synthesized by a 4-step reaction. A series of the second bicyclic intermediates, namely pyrazolo[1,5-a][1,3,5]triazin-2-thioxo-4-one, was obtained from various substituted 3-aminopyrazoles. These two intermediates were coupled finally in the presence of sodium ethoxide and methanol to yield the desirable target compounds. The methylthio coupling spacer was found to be suitable in enabling the interaction of the two fragments at the active site and allosteric site of the enzyme. The best coupled compound (9q) inhibited the thymidine phosphorylase with an IC₅₀ value as low as 0.36 ± 0.1 μM. In addition, 9q demonstrated a mixed-type of enzyme inhibition kinetics, thus suggesting that it might indeed potentially bind at two different sites on the enzyme.