Mo
tiva
ted by our recen
t finding
tha
t 4'-e
thynyls
tavudine (
4) is a promising an
ti-human immunodeficiencyvirus
type 1 (HIV-1) agen
t, we syn
thesized i
ts 4'-
thio analogue, as well as o
ther 4'-
thios
tavudines having acarbon subs
ti
tuen
t a
t the 4'-posi
tion, as racema
tes in
this s
tudy. Me
thyl 3-oxo-
te
trahydro
thiophen-2-carboxyla
te(
5) was used as a s
tar
ting ma
terial
to cons
truc
t the requisi
te 4-
thiofuranoid glycal (
13). In
troduc
tion of a
thymine base was carried ou
t by an elec
trophilic addi
tion reac
tion
to
13 using
N-iodosuccinimide (NIS) andbis(
trime
thylsilyl)
thymine. The desired
ta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middle">-anomer (
16ta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middle">) ob
tained as a major produc
t in
this reac
tion underwen
tready elimina
tion wi
th ac
tiva
ted Zn
to give
the 4'-carbome
thoxy deriva
tive (
18). By using
18 as a commonin
termedia
te, 4'-carbon-subs
ti
tu
ted (CH
2OH, CO
2Me, CONH
2, CH=CH
2, CN, and C
ti
ties/
tbd1.gif">CH) 4'-
thios
tavudineswere prepared. Among
these six compounds, 4'-cyano (
28) and 4'-e
thynyl (
29) analogues were found
toshow inhibi
tory ac
tivi
ty agains
t HIV-1 wi
th ED
50 values of 7.6 and 0.74
ti
ties/mgr.gif">M, respec
tively. The ac
tivi
ty of
29 was comparable
to
tha
t of s
tavudine, bu
t 29 was no
t as ac
tive as
4. Op
tical resolu
tion of
29 was brieflyexamined.