Pyrimidine-5-carbonitriles: A review of available synthetic approaches and biological evaluation for promising compounds over the last decade

The structural diversity and biological significance of pyrimidine core attracted the attention of many researchers and scientists in the past years owing to their inclusion in the composition of most nucleotides, including DNA and RNA. One unique scaffold was pyrimidine-5-carbonitrile and its importance is largely related to a wide range of biological activities of pyrimidine-5-carbonitrile derivatives such as anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antitubercular, antiviral, antihypertensive, anthelmintic, anticonvulsant, and antimalarial. The key point of this review is to collect and review the most recent and available synthetic pathways for pyrimidine-5-carbonitrile derivatives from different starting materials and focus on the promising derivatives with valuable pharmacological activities.