Towards the synthesis of sulfonamide-based RNA mimetics

Molecular Construction of Sulfonamide Antisense Oligonucleotides

An efficient and scalable synthesis of new oligonucleotide monomers was developed for replacement of the phosphodiester backbone of RNA by a sulfonamide-containing backbone to enable construction of sulfonamide antisense oligonucleotides (SaASOs). It was shown that by employing these sulfonamide RNA (SaRNA) monomers, it was possible to synthesize oligomers in solution. The properties of a sulfonamide moiety replacement were evaluated by incorporation of a SaRNA-monomer into a DNA strand and performing thermal stability tests of the resulting DNA and RNA-double-strand hybrids. Although sulfonamide modification caused a decrease in melting temperature (T_m) of both hybrids, it was lower for the sulfonamide-containing DNA-RNA hybrid than that for the sulfonamide-containing DNA-DNA hybrid.

The Sulfonamide Motif as a Synthetic Tool

Sulfonamides are well known motifs in medicinal chemistry, forming a large family of antibacterial agents as well as being found in numerous other drugs. The chemistry of this functional group, however, is less well documented. This review seeks to bring together the various applications and advantages of this motif in organic synthesis, which includes the sulfonamide as an activating group, protecting group, leaving group and as a molecular scaffold.