ABSTRACT
We report in this Letter the synthesis of prodrugs of 2-fluoro-2-deoxyarabinose-1-phosphate and 2,2-difluoro-2-deoxyribose-1-phosphate. We demonstrate the difficulty of realising a phosphorylation step on the anomeric position of 2-deoxyribose, and we discover that introduction of fluorine atoms on the 2 position of 2-deoxyribose enables the phosphorylation step: in fact, the stability of the prodrugs increases with the degree of 2-fluorination. Stability studies of produgs of 2-fluoro-2-deoxyribose-1-phosphate and 2,2-difluoro-2-deoxyribose-1-phosphate in acidic and neutral conditions were conducted to confirm our observation. Biological evaluation of prodrugs of 2,2-difluoro-2-deoxyribose-1-phosphate for antiviral and cytotoxic activity is reported.
Subject(s)
Antiviral Agents/chemical synthesis , Deoxyribonucleotides/chemistry , Prodrugs/chemical synthesis , Ribosemonophosphates/chemistry , Animals , Antiviral Agents/pharmacology , Antiviral Agents/toxicity , Cell Line , Cell Proliferation/drug effects , Deoxyribonucleotides/pharmacology , Deoxyribonucleotides/toxicity , HIV-1/drug effects , HIV-2/drug effects , Humans , Mice , Prodrugs/pharmacology , Prodrugs/toxicity , Simplexvirus/drug effects , Vaccinia virus/drug effects , Vesiculovirus/drug effectsABSTRACT
The structure of the deoxyribonucleoside derived from N 6-methoxy-2, 6-diaminopurine (dK) was examined by NMR. The methoxyamino residue was found predominantly in the imino rather than the amino tautomer (ratio: 9:1 in DMSO). The nucleoside proved to be a potent transition mutagen in Escherichia coli , in contrast to the closely related nucleoside derived from the analogue N6-methoxyaminopurine (dZ), which was only weakly mutagenic. The 5'-triphosphate derivatives, dKTP and dZTP, were synthesized; Taq polymerase incorporated dKTP opposite both T and, less well, opposite dC in template DNA. Both analogue triphosphates produced transition mutations when added to PCR reactions. In each case, there was a large excess of AT-->GC compared to GC-->AT mutations (ratios were 15:1 for dKTP and 10:1 for dZTP). Polymerase extension times in each cycle had to be extended, consistent with a decreased rate of DNA synthesis in the presence of the analogues. This and the mutagenic ratios are discussed in terms of syn-anti inversion of the methoxyl group.
