Development of a synthetic route towards N4,N9-disubstituted 4,9-diaminoacridines: On the way to multi-stage antimalarials

A multi-step synthetic route towards N4,N9-disubstituted 4,9-diaminoacridines that, to the best of our knowledge, has no precedence in the literature, has been developed. The target structures are likely to reveal interesting biological activities in the near future, not only due to their mepacrine-like core, but also because they embed simultaneously the pharmacophores of chloroquine and primaquine, antimalarial drugs that act at different stages of malaria infection.