C-glycosyl bond conformation in oxazofurin: crystallographic and computational studies of the oxazole analogue of tiazofurin.

Oxazofurin is the inactive oxazole analogue of the C-glycosyl thiazole antitumor agent tiazofurin. Replacement of the thiazole sulfur in tiazofurin with the oxazole oxygen in oxazofurin produces conformational effects that are examined using crystallographic and computational methods. The crystal structure of oxazofurin contains six molecules in the asymmetric unit and has been refined to a standard R value of 6.8% for all data. The six oxazofurin conformers show an average C-glycosidic torsion angle of 70(9) degrees. This value is significantly higher than the average absolute C-glycosidic torsion angle of 24(10) degrees obtained from previous thiazole nucleoside structures. Previous studies suggest that, in tiazofurin, an electrostatic interaction between a positively charged thiazole sulfur and negatively charged furanose oxygen constrains the C-glycosidic torsion angle to a relatively small value. Ab initio molecular orbital studies presented here suggest that the higher C-glycosidic angles observed in the oxazofurin structures result from a repulsive interaction between negatively charged oxazole and furanose oxygens. Thus, it is likely that differences in activity between oxazo- and tiazofurin are either (1) due directly to differences in electronic properties between the thiazole and oxazole rings or (2) due to the variation in C-glycosidic bond conformation resulting from the alteration in the charge distribution of the heterocycle.