Synthesis of Ribonucleosidic Dimers with an Amide Linkage from d-Xylose.

ABSTRACT

An original and efficient stereocontrolled synthesis of ribonucleosidic homo- and heterodimers has been achieved from inexpensive d-xylose. This successful strategy involved the sequential introduction of nucleobases, using two stereocontrolled N-glycosidation reactions, from a common two-furanoside amide-linked scaffold offering the possibility of obtaining any given base sequence. The pertinence of this approach is illustrated through the preparation of the homodimers UU-34 and TT-35 in 18 steps with an excellent overall yield of more than 10% from d-xylose, while the heterodimer route led to UT-39 in 19 steps with around 10% overall yield.