Synthesis of 4-thiouridine, 6-thioinosine, and 6-thioguanosine 3',5'-O-bisphosphates as donor molecules for RNA ligation and their application to the synthesis of photoactivatable TMG-capped U1 snRNA fragments.

4-Thiouridine, 6-thioguanosine, and 6-thioinosine 3',5'-bisphosphates (9, 20, and 28) were synthesized in good yields by considerably improved methods. In the former two compounds, uridine and 2-N-phenylacetylguanosine were converted via transient O-trimethylsilylation to the corresponding 4- and 6-O-benzenesulfonyl intermediates (2 and 13), which, in turn, were allowed to react with 2-cyanoethanethiol in the presence of N-methylpyrrolidine to give 4-thiouridine (3) and 2-N-phenylacetyl-6-thioguanosine derivatives (14), respectively. In situ dimethoxytritylation of these thionucleoside derivatives gave the 5'-masked products 4 and 15 in high overall yields from 1 and 11. 6-S-(2-Cyanoethyl)-5'-O-(4,4'-dimethoxytrityl)-6-thioinosine (23) was synthesized via substitution of the 5'-O-tritylated 6-chloropurine riboside derivative 22 with 2-cyanoethanethiol. These S-(2-cyanoethyl)thionucleosides were converted to the 2'-O-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)ribonucleoside 3'-phosphoramidite derivatives 7, 18, and 26 or 3',5'-bisphosphate derivatives 8, 19, and 27. Treatment of 8, 19, and 27 with DBU gave thionucleoside 3',5'-bisphosphate derivatives 9, 20, and 28, which were found to be substrates of T4 RNA ligase. These thionucleoside 3',5'-bisphosphates were examined as donors for ligation with m3(2,2,7) G5'pppAmUmA, i.e., the 5'-terminal tetranucleotide fragment of U1 snRNA, The 4-thiouridine 3',5'-bisphosphate derivative 9 was found to serve as the most active substrate of T4 RNA ligase with a reaction efficiency of 96%.