Unsaturated ketonucleosides synthesis

The synthesis of the first reported51,52 unsaturated ketonucleoside, 61a, was accomplished by acetylation of the known 7-(6-deoxy-/ -L-h/xo-... 

Among the unsaturated ketonucleosides may be classified the disaccharide derivative 74, which is an analog of the biologically active compound 68c. The key intermediate for the synthesis of this unsaturated ketodisaccharide nucleoside was the partially protected, disaccharide nucleoside 73, which was prepared by two separate routes,56 Treatment of 73 with the Me2SO-acetic anhydride reagent for two days at room temperature afforded 7-[2,3-di-0-benzoyl-4-0-(3-0-benzoyl-2,6-di-deoxy - / - d - glycero - hex - 2 - enopyranosyl - 4 - ulose) - 6 - deoxy - / - d -glycopyranosyl]theophylline (74), isolated crystalline.56... 

This Subsection deals with the preparation of 2 - and 4 -ketohexosyl-purines and -pyrimidines, which have proved to be versatile synthetic intermediates. A 5 -keto derivative of a hexofuranose nucleoside is also described. The synthesis of epoxy-, halogeno-, unsaturated, epimino-, and thio-ketonucleosides will be developed in subsequent Subsections and Sections. 

A thorough investigation12 of the effects of the unsaturated ketonu-cleoside 61a on KB cells in culture confirmed the high cytotoxic potency of this compound. Moreover, it appeared that, at low doses, where no cytotoxic effect occurs, the ketonucleoside impaired DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis, and strongly inhibited cell multiplication. 

Three additional approaches to the synthesis of CNT are shown in Fig. 9. The first [77, 78] involves transformation of 3 -ketonucleoside 44 into cyanohydrin 45, followed by deoxygenation at 3 and then at 2 to afford 47, which is easily epimerized to 31 by treatment with base (pH = 9). Treatment of 2 -0-acyl derivatives of 46 with bases produced elimination to give the 2, 3 -unsaturated nucleoside 48. An important factor in the chemistry of these cyanonucleosides is the acidity of the H-3 hydrogen atom in a-position to the nitrile group. This acidity is responsible for the facile epimerization 47 31 and for the elimination... 

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