Pyrrolopyrimidine, A Multifaceted Scaffold in Cancer Targeted Therapy

Pyrrolopyrimidine derivatives represent a class of biologically active heterocyclic compounds which can serve as promising scaffolds that display remarkable biological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral and anticancer. In the last few years, several pyrrolopyrimidine derivatives have been approved by the US FDA and in other countries for the treatment of different diseases or are currently in phase I/II clinical trials. Due to their inimitable antioxidant and anti-tumor properties, researchers were inspired to develop novel derivatives for the treatment of different types of cancer. The present review summarizes recent literature up to 2017 on the most recent development in the medicinal chemistry of pyrrolopyrimidine derivatives and their potential as anticancer therapeutics, especially compounds acting as kinase inhibitors.