Guanine has a variety of roles in chemistry, from its basic function in the storing and transferring genetic information to its usages in synthetic chemistry and other fields. Because of its distinct structure and biological importance, it is a fundamental component of contemporary study in organic chemistry and molecular biology. In this review, we focused on covering the synthetic pathways of various derivatives of guanine from the year 2000 until the present. As a result of the guanine molecule containing multiple functional groups, this gives us the ability to prepare several guanines such as O6-alkylating guanines, O6-benzylguanines, 8-aza-O6-benzylguanines, 9-substituted guanines, guanine-azo derivatives, guanine Schiff bases, guanine-oxazepine derivatives and others. Also, the guanine molecule and some of its derivatives have proven effective as chelating agents, as they coordinate with a variety of transition metal ions by behaving as ambi-, di-, and tridentate depending on the number of donor atoms of the molecules contained that leads to the formation of inorganic guanine derivatives. A number of these guanines that have been evaluated for various bioactivities have performed well in some assays. They could therefore be used in the pharmaceutical sector to develop novel drugs.
