Chemistry around imidazopyrazine and ibuprofen : discovery of novel fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitors

Based on the imidazo-[1,2-a]-pyrazin-3-(7H)-one scaffold, a dual action prodrug has been designed for combining antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, possibly unmasked upon oxidation. The construction of the target-molecule requires two building blocks, namely a 2-amino-1,4-pyrazine and a 2-ketoaldehyde. Attempts to synthesize the 2-ketoaldehyde (5a) derived from ibuprofen failed, but led to the corresponding 2-ketoaldoxime (7a) which could not be condensed with the pyrazine synthons. However, a model compound, i.e. phenylglyoxal aldoxime, reacted well under microwave activation to furnish novel imidazo[1,2-a]-pyrazine-3-(7H)-imine derivatives (18a,b). These heterobicycles behave as antioxidants by inhibiting the lipid peroxidation, and one compound (18b) is endowed with a significant anti-inflammatory effect in a cellular test. Unexpectedly, all the synthetic intermediates derived from ibuprofen are good inhibitors of FAAH, the most active compound (4a) featuring the 1,3-dithian-2-yl motif