The 5‘-amino-5‘-phosphono derivatives of cytidine, cytosine arabinoside (ara-C), and uridine have
been prepared via the corresponding nucleoside aldehydes. Phosphite addition to imines derived
from the nucleoside aldehydes and p-methoxybenzylamine was efficient, and use of this amine
allowed cleavage of the products to the parent amino phosphonic acids. The phosphite additions
proved to be diastereoselective, with the cytidine and uridine derivatives favoring the 5‘S
stereochemistry and the ara-C derivative favoring the 5‘R isomer. The stereochemistry of one
cytidine derivative was established by single-crystal diffraction analysis, and detailed comparisons
of the 13C NMR data allowed assignments of the other amino phosphonates