Synthesis of novel N-1 (allyloxymethyl) analogues of 6-benzyl-1-(ethoxymethyl)-5-isopropyluracil (MKC-442, emivirine) with improved activity against HIV-1 and its mutants.

This paper reports the synthesis and the antiviral activities of a series of 6-arylmethyl-1-(allyloxymethyl)-5-alkyluracil derivatives, which can be viewed as analogues of the anti-HIV-1 drug emivirine (formerly MKC-442) from which they differ in the replacement of the ethoxymethyl group with variously allyloxymethyl moieties. The most active compounds N-1 allyloxymethyl- and N-1 3-methylbut-2-enyl substituted 5-ethyl-6-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)uracils (12 and 13) showed activity against HIV-1 wild-type in the picomolar range with selective index of greater than 5 x 10(6) and activity in the submicromolar range against the clinically important Y181C and K103N mutant strains known to be resistant to emivirine. Structure-activity relationship studies established a correlation between the anti-HIV-1 activity and the substitution pattern of the N-1 allyloxymethyl group.