Synthesis and biological activity of 4'-thio-L-xylofuranosyl nucleosides

Mitsunobu Coupling of Nucleobases and Alcohols: An Efficient, Practical Synthesis for Novel Nonsugar Carbon Nucleosides

A simple facile synthesis of substituted purine derivatives has been developed by using Mitsunobu conditions for an alcohol and a respective nucleobase. A wide range of alcohols produces good to excellent yield (>90%). The resulting purine analogues show good regioselectivity with N-9 substitution as the dominant products in most of the cases. Application of diastereospecific alcohols reveals a complete inversion of the carbon stereogenic center giving a single diastereomer. More than two dozen novel nucleobase derivatives have been prepared in high yield.

Thiosugars. X. Novel nucleoside analogues derived from 4-thio-L-lyxofuranose

1-O-Acetyl-2,3,5-tri-O-benzyl-4-thio-L-lyxofuranose 1 was transformed into O-benzyl- and O-acetyl-protected 1-(4-thio-L-lyxofuranosyl) nucleoside derivatives by use of the TMSOTf method. Debenzylation with boron tribromide or deacetylation with sodium methoxide yielded the corresponding pyrimidine (7-11, 17, 18, 26 and 27) and purine (29 and 34) nucleoside analogues. The anomeric configurations were determined by NMR spectroscopy and, in the case of the 5-halo- (7-9) and nitrouridine derivative 11 and the 6-methylcytidine derivative 27, by X-ray structural analyses.--The unprotected nucleosides were not anti-virically inhibitory at 250 microM.