Synthesis of new bis-furanyl-pyrrolo[3,4-b]pyridin-5-ones via the Ugi-Zhu reaction and docking studies on the main protease (M^Pro) from SARS-CoV-2

The synthesis of the five new bis-furanyl-pyrrolo[3,4-b]pyridin-5-ones 1a-e in 24 to 40% yields through a domino sequence based on the Ugi-Zhu three-component reaction is presented. Then, on the main protease M^Pro (PDB: 6lu7) from the SARS-CoV-2, the synthesized products and co-crystallized ligands of M^Pro were in silico evaluated using the docking technique, finding moderate to good binding energies and some interesting interactions, suggesting that some bis-furanyl-pyrrolo[3,4-b]pyridin-5-ones may be used for further in vitro assays against the virus.