Synthesis and in vitro evaluation of novel 8-aminoquinoline-pyrazolopyrimidine hybrids as potent antimalarial agents.

In the search of novel chemotherapeutic agents for emerging drug resistant parasites, the hybridization approaches have successfully emerged as an efficient tool in malarial chemotherapy. Herein, a rational design and synthesis of novel 8-aminoquinoline and pyrazolopyrimidine hybrids and their antimalarial activity against wild type Plasmodium falciparum (Pf_NF54) and resistant strain (Pf_K1) is reported. The medicinal chemistry approach to expand the scope of this series resulted in an identification of potent compounds with nanomolar potency (best IC50 5-10nM). Systematic structure activity relationship (SAR) studies revealed that pyrazolopyrimidine and 8-aminoquinoline ring are essential for achieving good P. falciparum potency. The docking study revealed that the compound 6 can retain some of the critical interactions within pfDHODH drug target.