Towards the Synthesis of Inosine Building Blocks for the Preparation of Oligonucleotides with Hydrophobic Alkyl Chains Between the Nucleotide Units †

The scientific objective of the research reported in this manuscript was the synthesis of novel phosphoramidite building blocks for the preparation of lipophilic oligonucleotides. Reaction of inosine (4) with 4-oxopentyl-4-methylbenzoate (2c) in the presence of triethyl orthoformate and 4M HCl in 1,4-dioxane gave a diastereoisomeric mixture of the ketals 5. Subsequent 4,4’-dimethoxytritylation at the 5’-hydroxyl afforded (R)-6 + (S)-6 which could be separated chromatographically. Detoluoylation gave compounds (R)-7 and (S)-7. Phosphitylation of a diastereoisomeric mixture of 7 led to a mixture of four diastereoisomers of the corresponding 2-cyanoethylphosphoramidites 8.