Synthesis of 3,4–Dihydropyrimidin–2-ones (DHPMs) Using Highly Efficient Recyclable Silica Supported Rhodium Chloride as Heterogeneous Catalyst and their Anti-Neuroinflammatory Activity

The series of 3,4–dihydropyrimidin–2-ones (DHPMs) were synthesized using recyclable silica supported RhCl3 as heterogeneous catalyst and evaluated for anti-neuroinfammatory effect in microglia cells. Among the DHPMs tested, compounds 4g, 4j and 4v strongly inhibited LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) production with IC50 value of 67.32, 46.01 and 41.31 μM in the microglia cells. Also, compounds 4g, 4j and 4v significantly inhibited the enzyme activity of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) without changes of iNOS protein expression and NO scavenging activity. This result suggests that compounds 4g, 4j and 4v showed the anti-neuroinflammatory effect by suppressing iNOS enzyme activity.