Pyridine and Pyrimidine Derivatives as Privileged Scaffolds in Biologically Active Agents

Pyridine and pyrimidine derivatives have received great interest in recent pharmacological research, being effective in the treatment of various malignancies, such as myeloid leukemia, breast cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Most of the FDA approved drugs show a pyridine or pyrimidine core bearing different substituents. Aim of this review is to describe the most recent reports in this field, with reference to the new discovered pyridine- or pyrimidine-based drugs, to their synthesis and to the evaluation of the most biologically active derivatives. The corresponding benzofused heterocyclic compounds, i.e. quinolines and quinazolines, are also reported.