Biological activity of dihydropyrimidinone (DHPM) derivatives: A systematic review

Dihydropyrimidinones are heterocycles with a pyrimidine moiety in the ring nucleus, which, in recent decades, have aroused interest in medicinal chemistry due to alleged versatile biological activity. In this systematic review, we describe the currently published activities of dihydropyrimidinone derivatives. Between 1990 and December 31st, 2016, 115 articles outlined biological activities or toxicity of DHPM derivatives, 12 of those involved in vivo experiments. The main activities associated with this class of compounds are antitumoral (43 articles), anti-inflammatory (12 articles), antibacterial (20 articles) and calcium channel antagonism/inhibition (14 articles). Antitumoral activity is the main biological property evaluated, since the main representative compound of this class (monastrol) is a known Eg5 kinesin inhibitor. This review depicts a variety of other pharmacological activities associated with DHPM derivatives, but the main findings are essentially in vitro characteristics of the substances. This review presents the current state of the art of DHPM biological activities and demonstrates that there is still a need for further in vivo studies to better delineate the pharmacological potential of this class of substances.