Peter W. Davis

Synthesis of N-substituted hydroxyprolinol phosphoramidites for the preparation of combinatorial libraries

Abstract A series of N-substituted DMT-hydroxymethylpyrrolidinol phosphoramidites has been prepared from trans-4-hydroxyproline. These can be coupled in high yield and purity using automated synthesis techniques, allowing a wide range of functionalities to be introduced into phosphodiester oligomers.

Solid-phase synthesis of a library of functionalized aminodiol scaffolds

A combinatorial library motif has been developed based on orthogonally protected aminodiol scaffolds. Amine functionality was derivatized by commercially available electrophiles including carboxylic acids, sulfonyl chlorides, isocyanates, and aldehydes. A hydroxyl moiety was converted to a carbamate linkage, allowing a variety of amines to be incorporated. The scaffold was anchored to TentaGel at the second hydroxyl via a succinyl linker, which was hydrolyzed by mild aqueous basic conditions. The method was used to make a library of about 17,000 different members in mixtures of 5 per sample.

Automated solid-phase synthesis of linear nitrogen-linked compounds

A synthetic library motif has been developed to create linear, nitrogen-linked compounds as screening libraries to target structured RNA for drug discovery. Scaffolds were created in situ from suitably protected bifunctional compounds linked together either by acyl or amine links. Acyl links were created from amino acids, which also introduce one degree of functionality. Amine links from the amino acid nitrogen were created from an N-protected amino alcohol via Fukuyama Mitsunobu alkylation. Each amine site can then be used for introducing functionality or extending the scaffold. This synthetic scheme can be used to create a wide variety of modified-backbone PNA in situ, as shown by the synthesis of a PNA-type monomer. The synthesis steps have been enabled on a 96-well parallel-array synthesizer for high-throughput synthesis. The present study represents a versatile synthetic approach to a wide variety of potential RNA-binding molecules.

A new method for introducing amidate linkages in oligonucleotides using phosphoramidite chemistry

Cyanoethyl-protected phosphotriester links in oligonucleotides made with standard pophosporamidite chemistry were converted to pbosphoramidate linkages during oligonucleotide synthesis on solid support. The cyanoethyl group was removed with piperidine, and the resulting phosphodiester was activated with p-tosyl chloride. An amine nucleophile displaced the tosyl to yield a phosphoramidate linkage.