Design and novel synthesis of aryl-heteroaryl-imidazole MAP kinase inhibitors

Inhibitors of the MAP kinase p38, potentially useful for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory diseases, were found to exhibit antifungal activity. We have developed a new diversity-oriented strategy leading to concise and efficient syntheses of known and new members of this compound class. The strategy is based on carboncarbon cross-coupling reactions using N-protected 4,5-diiodo-imidazoles as the starting templates.