Tricyclanos: conformationally constrained nucleoside analogues with a new heterotricycle obtained from a D-ribofuranose unit

A novel type of nucleoside analogue in which the sugar part is replaced by a new tricycle, 3,7,10-trioxa-11-azatricyclo[5.3.1.05,11]undecane has been prepared by substrate-controlled asymmetric synthesis. 1,5-Dialdehydes obtained from properly protected or unprotected uridine, ribothymidine, cytidine, inosine, adenosine and guanosine by metaperiodate oxidation reacted readily with tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane to provide the corresponding tricyclic derivatives with three new stereogenic centers. Through a double cyclisation cascade process the tricyclic compounds were obtained in good to high yields, with very high diastereoselectivity. Formation of one stereoisomer, out of the eight possible, was observed in all cases. The absolute configuration of the new stereotriad-containing tricyclic systems was aided by conventional NMR experiments followed by chemical shift calculations using an X-ray crystal structure as reference that was in good agreement with H–H distances obtained from a new ROESY NMR method. The synthesis was compatible with silyl, trityl and dimethoxytrityl protecting groups. A new reagent mixture containing ZnCl2, Et3SiH and hexafluoroisopropanol was developed for detritylation of the acid-sensitive tricyclano nucleosides

A three-component reagent system for rapid and mild removal of O-, N- and S-trityl protecting groups

A new reagent system consisting of a Lewis acid such as BF3Et2O or Cu(OTf)2, the mild protic acid hexafluoroisopropanol and the reducing quenching agent triethylsilane was elaborated forO-,N- and S-detritylation of nucleoside, carbohydrate and amino acid derivatives. The method is compatible with acetyl, silyl, acetal and Fmoc groups

Synthesis and oligomerization of cysteinyl nucleosides

Nucleoside and nucleic acid analogues are known to possess a considerable therapeutic potential. In this work, by coupling cysteine to nucleosides, we successfully synthesized compounds that may not only have interesting biological properties in their monomeric form, but can be used beyond that, for oligomerization, in order to produce new types of synthetic nucleic acids. We elaborated different strategies for the synthesis of cysteinyl nucleosides as monomers of cysteinyl nucleic acids using nucleophilic substitution or thiol–ene coupling as a synthetic tool, and utilised on two complementary nucleosides, uridine and adenosine. Dipeptidyl dinucleosides and pentameric cysteinyl uridine were prepared from the monomeric building blocks, which are the first members of a new class of peptide nucleic acids containing the entire ribofuranosyl nucleoside units bound to the peptide backbone