Synthesis of a bicyclic double-headed nucleoside

From Glycals to Nitrogen Heterocycles and Carbocycles via "Cleavage-Intramolecular Recombination Strategy"

Glycals (carbohydrate enol-ethers) have enjoyed profound applications in organic synthesis for more than a century. They not only serve as versatile glycosyl donors or as substrates for Ferrier rearrangement, but also find extensive synthetic applications especially as a "chiral pool" for accomplishing the synthesis of a variety of natural and biologically important compounds. As cyclic enol ethers, they demonstrate high reactivity and are among the most and variously transformable monosaccharide derivatives. The uniqueness of the reactivity of glycals is that they can be synthetically tuned to get a library of derivatives through stereo- and regioselective introduction of a variety of functional groups at C1, C2, C3 as well as C4 carbons of the sugar. We have developed a practical approach for stereoselective mono- and diamination of glycals and over the years utilized these scaffolds for the synthesis of a variety of biologically important nitrogen heterocycles and carbocycles through a "Diversity Oriented Approach". Our synthetic strategy in this direction mainly relied on the cleavage of ring O-C bond of the sugar followed by an "intramolecular recombination" reaction. Utilizing this strategy, we have accomplished the synthesis of several biologically important natural products, their analogues and related unnatural derivatives. Examples of such compounds reported from our group include polyhydroxypyrrolidines, DMDP, anisomycin, steviamine, pochonicine, conduramines, bulgecinine, aminocyclitols, azepanes, 4-hydroxy-D-proline, azanucleosides and their analogues. A personal account highlighting these syntheses is presented here.

Double-headed nucleosides: Synthesis and applications

Double-headed nucleoside monomers have immense applications for studying secondary nucleic acid structures. They are also well-known as antimicrobial agents. This review article accounts for the synthetic methodologies and the biological applications of double-headed nucleosides.

Supramolecular Architecture through Self-Organization of Janus-Faced Homoazanucleosides

Design of Janus-faced or double-headed homoazanucleosides with the possibility to undergo self-organization through base pairing has been conceptualized and accomplished. The synthetic strategy demonstrates the unique ability to introduce two similar or complementary nucleobases on opposite arms of a chiral polyhydroxypyrrolidine while also ensuring that their faces are anti to each other to allow only intermolecular interactions between the nucleobases, an essential requisite for self-assembly. Single-crystal X-ray structures were determined for all three types of homoazanucleosides, one possessing two adenine molecules, the other with two thymine moieties, and the third containing both adenine and thymine. The crystal structures of all three display noncovalent interactions, including Watson-Crick base pairing, Hoogsteen H-bonding, and π-π stacking, resulting in unusual supramolecular patterns. The most striking supramolecular motif among them, which emerged from the crystal structure of the homoazanucleoside containing both adenine and thymine, is a left-handed helix formed through Watson-Crick pairing between nucleobases. The present study thus forms a prelude to the design of Janus-faced building blocks to establish helical pillars as well as lateral branches that together define a three-dimensional (3D) lattice. The ready accessibility of these molecules is expected to spur the next generation of discoveries in the design of functional nanomaterials.

Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of 3′-O,4′-C-methylene-linked α-l-arabinonucleosides

Biocatalytic methodology has been developed for the efficient and environment friendly synthesis of 3′-O,4′-C-methylene-linked α-l-arabinonucleosides.

Locked nucleic acid (LNA) induced effect on the hybridization and fluorescence properties of oligodeoxyribonucleotides modified with nucleobase-functionalized DNA monomers

LNA and nucleobase-modified DNA monomers are two types of building blocks that are used extensively in oligonucleotide chemistry. However, there are only very few reports in which these two monomer families are used alongside each other. In the present study we set out to characterize the biophysical properties of oligodeoxyribonucleotides in which C5-modified 2'-deoxyuridine or C8-modified 2'-deoxyadenosine monomers are flanked by LNA nucleotides. We hypothesized that the LNA monomers would alter the sugar rings of the modified DNA monomers toward more RNA-like North-type conformations for maximal DNA/RNA affinity and specificity. Indeed, the incorporation of LNA monomers almost invariably results in increased target affinity and specificity relative to the corresponding LNA-free ONs, but the magnitude of the stabilization varies greatly. Introduction of LNA nucleotides as direct neighbors into C5-pyrene-functionalized pyrimidine DNA monomers yields oligonucleotide probes with more desirable photophysical properties as compared to the corresponding LNA-free probes, including more intense fluorescence emission upon target binding and improved discrimination of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These hybrid oligonucleotides are therefore promising probes for diagnostic applications.

Double-headed nucleotides introducing thymine nucleobases in the major groove of nucleic acid duplexes

Four different double-headed nucleosides each combining two thymine nucleobases with different linkers were synthesised. The 5-position of 2'-deoxyuridine was connected to the N1-position of a thymine through either m- or p-disubstituted phenyl or phenylacetylene linkers by the use of Suzuki or Sonogashira couplings. When introduced into oligonucleotides, the thermal stability of dsDNA and DNA : RNA duplexes were determined and structural information was obtained from CD- and fluorescence spectroscopy. Also the recognition of abasic sites was studied. In general, the more stable duplexes were obtained with m- rather than p-substitution and with phenylacetylene rather than phenyl linkers.

Double-headed nucleotides with arabino configuration: synthesis and hybridization properties

The formation of new nucleic acid motifs by using double-headed nucleotides is reported. Modified phosphoramidites carrying additional thymine or adenine attached to the 2'-position of arabinouridine through a methylene linker are conveniently prepared and incorporated into oligonucleotides to obtain the modified nucleotide monomers (a)U(T) and (a)U(A), respectively. The extension of a DNA double helix by one or two additional A:T base pairs is achieved by placing these modified monomers in the opposite strands in a so-called (+1)-zipper arrangement. Hence, 12 basepairs can be presented in an 11-mer or even a 10-mer duplex. The modified nucleotide monomers also behave as dinucleotides when base-paired with two complementary nucleotides from the opposite strand. A new nucleic acid motif is introduced when two (a)U(A) monomers recognize each other in the center of a duplex.