Synthesis of novel 6,6a,7,8-tetrahydro-5H-naphtho[1,2-e]pyrimido[4,5-b][1, 4]diazepines under microwave irradiation as potential anti-tumor agents

A new series of 6,6a,7,8-tetrahydro-5H-naphtho[1,2-e]pyrimido[4,5-b][1,4] diazepines 4a-f and 5a-f were efficiently synthesized in good yields from the reaction of E-2-arylidene-1-tetralones 1 and the respective tri- or tetraaminopyrimidines 2 or 3 under microwave irradiation using DMF as solvent and catalytic amounts of BF₃·OEt₂. Six of the obtained compounds were selected and tested by the National Cancer Institute (NCI-USA) against 60 different tumor cell lines. In particular, compounds 5a, 5c and 5e presented remarkable anti-tumor activity against melanoma cancer in SK-MEL-5 cell line.