Spongothymidine

It is evident that the anhydronucleoside route, in contrast to the Hilbert-Johnson,139 the mercuri,68 and, probably, the glycosylamine229 230,288 procedures, offers the possibility of synthesizing Cl-C2-cfs-/3-D nucleosides of pyrimidines, from pre-formed Cl-C2-(rans-/3-D-aldofuranosyl derivatives of pyrimidines. In this regard, the total syntheses described previously and the anhydronucleoside-conversion method may be viewed as complementary processes. The preparation of spongothymidine from l-/3-u-ribo-furanosylthymine is an example of this complementary relationship. An-... 

Shaw and Warrener262 have reported a synthesis of thymidine based on variations of the anhydronucleoside procedures previously described for the synthesis of spongouridine168 and spongothymidine.169 5 -Methyl-2 -... 

Cytosine arabinoside (69), a synthetic analog of the C-nucleosides spongouridine (70) and spongothymidine (71) from the sea sponge Cryptotheca cripta, was the first and, so far, the only marine-derived compound used routinely as an anticancer agent (110). However, a number of chemically diverse natural products from marine sources have been progressed to clinical trials. The three most advanced compounds are in phase II trials ecteinascidin-743 (72), a tetrahydroisoquino-... 

Marine life can also be a rich source of medicinal material. For example, C-nucleosides spongouridine and spongothymidine isolated from the Caribbean sponge Cryptotheca crypta possess antiviral activity. Synthetic analogues led to the development of cytosine arabinoside, a useful anticancer drug. Microbes also provide extremely useful medicines, the most famous case being penicillin... 

Spongothymidine. Ara-T Isol. from Caribbean sponge, Cryptotethia crypta. Antiviral agent. HIV reverse transcriptase (HlV-rt) inhibitor. 

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