Rules of Chemospecificity of Nucleophilc Ring-opening of Dithia-/Oxathia-Phospholane Towards the Selective Synthesis of Nucleoside 5’-O-Pα-Thio/Dithio/Trithio-Phosphate Ester Conjugates

DBU-assisted nucleophilic ring-opening of both uridine-5’-(2-thio-1,3,2-dithia-phospholane), 3, and uridine-(2-thio-1,3,2-oxathia-phospholane), 8, lasted 2 min at RT and resulted in quantitative yields of uridine-5’-phosphoro-di/trithioate esters. Furthermore, it was selective for alcohol and thiol vs. amine nucleophiles. Yet, reaction of mercaptoethanol with 3, was chemo-specific for the oxygen vs. sulfur nucleophile, while for the reaction of mercaptoethanol with 8, the opposite chemo-specificity was observed, probably related to the steric hindrance in the former case. The observed chemospecificity opens facile avenue for the synthesis of nucleoside-5’-O-Pα-thio/dithio/trithio-phosphate ester derivatives