Oligonucleotides containing novel 4'-C- or 3'-C-aminoalkyl branched thymidines

The synthesis of four novel 3′‐C‐branched and 4′‐C‐branched nucleosides and their transformation into the corresponding 3′‐O‐phosphoramidite building blocks for automated oligonucleotide synthesis is reported. The 4′‐C‐branched key intermediate 11 was synthesized by a convergent strategy and converted to its 2′‐O‐methyl and 2′‐deoxy‐2′‐fluoro derivatives, leading to the preparation of novel oligonucleotide analogues containing 4′‐C‐(aminomethyl)‐2′‐O‐methyl monomer X and 4′‐C‐(aminomethyl)‐2′‐deoxy‐2′‐fluoro monomer Y (Schemes 2 and 3). In general, increased binding affinity towards complementary single‐stranded DNA and RNA was obtained with these analogues compared to the unmodified references (Table 1). The presence of monomer X or monomer Y in a 2′‐O‐methyl‐RNA oligonucleotide had a negative effect on the binding affinity of the 2′‐O‐methyl‐RNA oligonucleotide towards DNA and RNA. Starting from the 3′‐C‐allyl derivative 28, 3′‐C‐(3‐aminopropyl)‐protected nucleosides and 3′‐O‐phosphoramidite derivatives were synthesized, leading to novel oligonucleotide analogues containing 3′‐C‐(3‐aminopropyl)thymidine monomer Z or the corresponding 3′‐C‐(3‐aminopropyl)‐2′‐O,5‐dimethyluridine monomer W (Schemes 4 and 5). Incorporation of the 2′‐deoxy monomer Z induced no significant changes in the binding affinity towards DNA but decreased binding affinity towards RNA, while the 2′‐O‐methyl monomer Z induced decreased binding affinity towards DNA as well as RNA complements (Table 2).