Chemo-, regio- and stereospecific addition of adenine and 8-azaadenine to α,β-acetylenic γ-hydroxy nitriles: a short-cut to novel acyclic adenosine analogues

Adenine (9H-purin-6-amine) adds readily to available α,β-acetylenic γ-hydroxy nitriles under mild conditions (molar ratio 1:1, K2CO3, DMF, rt, 10 min) to afford chemo-, regio- and stereospecifically (Z)-3-(6-amino-9H-purin-9-yl)-4-hydroxy-4-alkyl-2-alkenenitriles, novel functionalized acyclic nucleoside analogues (95–98% yield). Under similar conditions (K2CO3, DMF, rt, 1 h), 8-azaadenine (3H-[1,2,3]triazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidin-7-amine) reacts with 4-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-pentynenitrile nonselectively at the 7-, 8- and 9-positions to give the corresponding adducts in a 1:10.5:9 ratio, the total yield being 81%. Chemo-, regio- and stereospecific addition of 8-azaadenine to the above α,β-acetylenic γ-hydroxy nitriles leading to (Z)-3-(7-amino-2H-[1,2,3]triazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidin-2-yl)-4-hydroxy-4-alkyl-2-alkenenitriles in 44–90% yield is attained when the reaction is carried out without solvent in the presence of Et3N (30 mol %), the molar ratio of 8-azaadenine:α,β-acetylenic nitriles being 1:2.0 (rt, 12–38 h).