To identify a non-acylguanidine NHE-1 inhibitor, an acylguanidne group was replaced with an imidazole group in the potent NHE-1 inhibitors with furan or benzothiphene core template, found from our previous studies. We synthesized and biologically evaluated 4-heteroaryl-2-amino-5-methylimidazole derivatives. All those imidazole compounds (16-18) represented the potent NHE-1 inhibitory activities, similar to the corresponding acylguanidine compounds.