Synthesis and evaluation of hexitol nucleoside congeners as ambiguous nucleosides

A series of anhydrohexitol nucleoside congeners was synthesized as ambiguous or so-called universal nucleosides and was evaluated for their hybridization potential and discrimination properties. The 1,5-anhydro-2,3-dideoxy-2-(5-nitroindazol-1-yl)-d-arabino-hexitol 4e showed the lower spread in Tm values upon hybridization to the natural bases, with minimal destabilization, and therefore behaved as a true ambiguous nucleoside.