Synthesis of pyrrole urea and pyrrole carbonylurea derivatives

A series of urea and carbonylurea distamycin analogs whereby the linker has two NH groups for hydrogen bonding with base pairs of DNA were synthesized. The urea and carbonylurea derivatives are prepared from the in situ generation of pyrrole isocyanate (prepared from compound 3) and acyl isocyanate (compound 9), followed by the reaction with an amine. The synthetic feasibility for the further transformations of the pyrrole urea and pyrrole carbonylurea derivatives was also addressed. The binding abilities of these molecules to calf thymus DNA were evaluated by DNA melting temperature (T_m) analysis.