Nucleosides exhibit a broad spectrum of biological activity that generally results from their ability to inhibit specific enzymes. This activity has led to their use in the development of various pharmaceutical agents used in the treatment of cancers and to combat harmful viruses, bacteria and parasites. Nucleoside Mimetics provides an introduction to the chemistry of nucleoside mimetics, which combines carbohydrate, heterocyclic and asymmetric synthesis. The book gives a comprehensive introduction to nucleosides and coverage of the various classes. The aim of Nucleoside Mimetics is to provide the reader with a useful insight into the diversity of nucleosides, the range of elegant chemistry involved and the continuing importance of nucleosides as both therapeutic agents and as probes for studying biochemical processes.

This book contains the best known approaches for preparing the main types of glycosides in a short and comprehensive study. It also includes synthetic pathways of challenging glycosides known as antiviral or antineoplasic drugs, or synthetic substrates used for enzymatic detection including those used as substrates for detection of gene markers in plant biotechnology. Special attention is made on the structural characterization, providing the basic tools for the structural assignment through NMR, X-Ray and mass spectra techniques. Some of the chapters cover strategies for preparation of antiviral and antineoplasic drugs included in a drug design course.

Compiles current tested and proven approaches to synthesize novel nucleoside analogues Featuring contributions from leading synthetic chemists from around the world, this book brings together and describes tested and proven approaches for the chemical synthesis of common families of nucleoside analogues. Readers will learn to create new nucleoside analogues with desired therapeutic properties by using a variety of methods to chemically modify natural nucleosides, including: Changes to the heterocyclic base Modification of substituents at the sugar ring Replacement of the furanose ring by a different carbo- or heterocyclic ring Introduction of conformational restrictions Synthesis of enantiomers Preparation of hydrolitically stable C-nucleosides Chemical Synthesis of Nucleoside Analogues covers all the major classes of nucleosides, including pronucleotides, C-nucleosides, carbanucleosides, and PNA monomers which have shown great promise as starting points for the synthesis of nucleoside analogues. The book also includes experimental procedures for key reactions related to the synthesis of nucleoside analogues, providing a valuable tool for the preparation of a number of different compounds. Throughout the book, chemical schemes and figures help readers better understand the chemical structures of nucleoside analogues and the methods used to synthesize them. Extensive references serve as a gateway to the growing body of original research studies and reviews in the field. Synthetically modified nucleosides have proven their value as therapeutic drugs, in particular as antiviral and antitumor agents. However, many of these nucleoside analogues have undesirable side effects. With Chemical Synthesis of Nucleoside Analogues as their guide, researchers have a new tool for synthesizing a new generation of nucleoside analogues that can be used as therapeutic drugs with fewer unwanted side effects.

A collection of powerful new techniques for oligonucleotide synthesis and for the use of modified oligonucleotides in biotechnology. Among the protocol highlights are a novel two-step process that yields a high purity, less costly, DNA, the synthesis of phosphorothioates using new sulfur transfer agents, the synthesis of LNA, peptide conjugation methods to improve cellular delivery and cell-specific targeting, and triple helix formation. The applications include using molecular beacons to monitor the PCR amplification process, nuclease footprinting to study the sequence-selective binding of small molecules of DNA, nucleic acid libraries, and the use of small interference RNA (siRNA) as an inhibitor of gene expression.

This book includes a collection of minireviews and research papers written by international leaders in the field of carbohydrate chemistry as well as promising young talents. The contents of the contributions span from natural products over structure elucidation with special emphasis on spectroscopy, syntheses and synthetic methods, biological activities, applications of carbohydrates and carbohydrate mimetics as well as their use as molecular scaffolds and carriers of biological information. The reader will get a representative overview of state-of-the-art research topics and approaches.

Successful cancer chemotherapy relies heavily on the application of various deoxynucleoside analogs. Since the very beginning of modern cancer chemotherapy, a number of antimetabolites have been introduced into the clinic and subsequently applied widely for the treatment of many malignancies, both solid tumors and hematological disorders. In the latter diseases, cytarabine has been the mainstay of treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Although many novel compounds were synthesized in the 1980s and 1990s, no real improvement was made. However, novel technology is now capable of elucidating the molecular basis of several inborn errors as well as some specific malignancies. This has enabled the synthesis of several deoxynucleoside analogs that could be applied for specific malignancies, such as pentostatin and subsequently chlorodeoxyadenosine (cladribine) for the treatment of hairy cell leukemia. Already in the early stage of deoxynucleoside analog development, it was recognized that several of these compounds were very effective in the treatment of various viral infections, such as for the treatment of herpes infections. This formed the basis initially for the design of azidothymidine and subsequently many other analogs, which are currently successfully used for the treatment of HIV infections. As a spin-off of these research lines, some compounds not eligible for development as antiviral agents appeared to be very potent anticancer agents. The classical example is gemcitabine, now one of the most widely applied deoxynucleoside analogs, used for the (combination) treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, and ovarian cancer.

This two-volume work combines comprehensive information on the chemistry of the fluorinated heterocycles. The material has been divided such that the first volume is dedicated to 5-membered fluorinated heterocycles and macrocycles, while the second volume combines data connected with the chemistry of fluorine containing 6-membered heterocycles. Both volumes will be of interest to synthetic organic chemists in general, and particularly for those colleagues working in the fields of heterocyclic-compound chemistry, materials chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and fluorine chemistry. All information is presented and classified clearly to be effective source for broad auditory of chemists. It will be interesting for scientists working in the field of inorganic and coordination chemistry. Fluorinated heterocycles are becoming increasingly important in many areas including the pharmaceutical industry, materials science and agriculture. The presence of fluorine can result in substantial functional changes in the biological as well as physicochemical properties of organic compounds. Incorporation of fluorine into drug molecules can greatly affect their physicochemical properties, such as bond strength, lipophilicity, bioavailability, conformation, electrostatic potential, dipole moment, pKa etc. as well as pharmacokinetic properties, such as tissue distribution, rate of metabolism and pharmacological properties, such as pharmacodynamics and toxicology.