Radical route for the alkylation of purine nucleosides at C6 via Minisci reaction.

A highly regioselective Minisci reaction with the decarboxylative alkylation of purine nucleosides under mild conditions was developed. With 5 mol % AgNO3 as a catalyst and (NH4)2S2O8 as an oxidant, a series of purine nucleosides including ribosyl, deoxyribosyl, arabinosyl purine nucleosides worked well with primary, secondary, and tertiary aliphatic carboxylic acids.