Mitsunobu coupling of nucleobases and alcohols: an efficient, practical synthesis for novel nonsugar carbon nucleosides.

A simple facile synthesis of substituted purine derivatives has been developed by using Mitsunobu conditions for an alcohol and a respective nucleobase. A wide range of alcohols produces good to excellent yield (>90%). The resulting purine analogues show good regioselectivity with N-9 substitution as the dominant products in most of the cases. Application of diastereospecific alcohols reveals a complete inversion of the carbon stereogenic center giving a single diastereomer. More than two dozen novel nucleobase derivatives have been prepared in high yield.