A Bridged Nucleic Acid, 2',4'-BNA : Synthesis of Fully Modified Oligonucleotides Bearing Thymine, 5-Methylcytosine, Adenine
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Published online 9 January 2009 Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 4 1225–1238 doi:10.1093/nar/gkn1062 A bridged nucleic acid, 2’,4’-BNACOC: synthesis of fully modified oligonucleotides bearing thymine, 5-methylcytosine, adenine and guanine 2’,4’-BNACOC monomers and RNA-selective nucleic-acid recognition Yasunori Mitsuoka, Tetsuya Kodama, Ryo Ohnishi, Yoshiyuki Hari, Takeshi Imanishi and Satoshi Obika* Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan Received September 19, 2008; Revised December 15, 2008; Accepted December 16, 2008 ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Recently, we synthesized pyrimidine derivatives Antisense oligonucleotides are now attracting interest for of the 2’-O,4’-C-methylenoxymethylene-bridged their potential to be developed as a new class of drugs for nucleic-acid (2’,4’-BNACOC) monomer, the sugar treatment of inveterate diseases such as cancer and viral conformation of which is restricted in N-type con- diseases. For practical application of antisense methodol- formation by a seven-membered bridged structure. ogy, it is essential to develop modified oligonucleotides, which strongly interact with single-stranded RNA Oligonucleotides (BNACOC) containing this mono- (ssRNA) in a sequence-specific manner (1–3). The sugar mer show high affinity with complementary moiety of natural nucleosides and single-stranded oligo- single-stranded RNA and significant resistance to nucleotides exists in an individual equilibrium mixture nuclease degradation. Here, BNACOC consisting of COC between S-type and N-type conformations. However, it 2’,4’-BNA monomers bearing all four bases, is well known that the B-form DNA duplex possesses namely thymine, 5-methylcytosine, adenine and the S-type sugar conformation, and that a range of guanine was efficiently synthesized and properties N-type sugar conformation (pseudorotation phase angle, of duplexes containing the 2’,4’-BNACOC monomers 0 P 368) are adapted to the A-form RNA duplex struc- were investigated by UV melting experiments and ture (Figure 1) (4–6). Therefore, modified oligonucleo- circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. The UV melt- tides, which have sugar moiety restricted to the S-type ing curve analyses showed that the BNACOC/ or N-type conformations in advance, are expected to BNACOC duplex possessed excellent thermal stabil- have high binding affinity with complementary ssDNA ity and that the BNACOC increased thermal stability or ssRNA respectively. We have so far developed various with a complementary RNA strand. On the other kinds of bridged nucleic acids (BNAs) (7–19), the sugar hand, BNACOC/DNA heteroduplexes showed almost conformation of which is restricted or locked by introduc- tion of an additional bridged structure to the furanose the same thermal stability as RNA/DNA hetero- skeleton. It has been observed that 20,40-BNA (9,10)/ duplexes. Furthermore, mismatched sequence 0 0 COC LNA [The 2 ,4 -BNA was independently synthesized by studies showed that BNA generally improved the group of Wengel et al. immediately after our first the sequence selectivity with Watson–Crick base- report (9), and it is called a locked nucleic acid (LNA). pairing compared to the corresponding natural See refs (3,20–22)] (Figure 2), which is a BNAs with its DNA and RNA. A CD spectroscopic analysis sugar moiety fixed to an N-type conformation by five- indicated that the BNACOC formed duplexes with membered ring, prominently hybridizes to ssRNA targets. complementary DNA and RNA in a manner similar An X-ray crystallographic analysis of 20,40-BNA showed to natural RNA. that the maximum out-of-plane (max) value was 578, and *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: þ81 6 6879 8200; Fax: þ81 6 6879 8204; Email: [email protected] ß 2009 The Author(s) This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1226 Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 4 O O Base Base O O O R O P O R R = H or OH O O P O N-type S-type A-form duplex B-form duplex Figure 1. Sugar conformations and helix structures of double-stranded nucleic acids. Figure 2. Structures of 20,40-BNA/LNA, ENA, 20,40-BNANC, PrNA and 20,40-BNACOC monomers. that this value is larger than an adapted value RNA duplex, and that 20,40-BNACOC has the closest sugar (max ¼ 38.68 Æ 38) to natural A-form RNA duplex (4–6), conformation among nucleic-acid analogues with a differ- so the N-type nature of 20,40-BNA was emphasized due ent type of bridged structure between the 20- and to the restriction of the sugar moiety by the small five- 40-positions. membered ring. Other nucleic-acid analogues with a dif- It is of great interest to synthesize 20,40-BNACOC bearing ferent type of bridged structure between the 20- and a purine nucleobase for potential use in a wide variety 40-positions, which have six- and seven-membered ring, of applications and to investigate the conformations of have been reported (16–19,23–29). In one of these studies, oligonucleotides containing 20,40-BNACOC. Moreover, we described the synthesis and properties of 20-O,40-C- conformational analysis of duplex, which is formed aminomethylene BNA (20,40-BNANC) (Figure 2), and from fully modified oligonucleotides consisted of showed that oligonucleotides containing 20,40-BNANC 20,40-BNACOC, is very fascinating. In general, a purine have high hybridizing affinity with RNA compliments glycosidic linkage is more acid-labile than a pyrimidine (16–19). X-ray crystallographic analysis revealed that the glycosidic linkage (31). Therefore, it is readily expected 0 0 NC P and max values of 2 ,4 -BNA [NMe] were 238 and 498, that the acidic conditions used for the synthesis of respectively (19). These values indicated that the confor- 20,40-BNACOC with a pyrimidine nucleobase are not suit- mation of 20,40-BNANC[NMe] is restricted to the N-type able for the purine congener (Scheme 1). Here, we report conformation as seen in natural A-form RNA duplex. the synthesis of 20,40-BNACOC monomers having a purine This suggested that the sugar conformation restricted by nucleobase via formation of a COC linkage under mild the bridged structure between the 20- and 40-positions conditions, and we describe the properties of the corre- approximated to the adapted sugar conformation of sponding oligonucleotide derivatives. the natural A-form RNA duplex because of increased ring size. Recently, we designed 20,40-BNACOC, bearing a seven-membered bridged structure, and successfully MATERIALS AND METHODS synthesized the 20,40-BNACOC monomers having pyrimi- General aspects and instrumentation dine nucleobases (Figure 2) (30). The oligonucleotides containing these monomers show high affinity with com- All reactions were performed under an atmosphere of plementary ssRNA. An X-ray crystallographic analysis of nitrogen. Unless otherwise mentioned, all chemicals 20,40-BNACOC bearing thymine showed that the P and from commercial sources were used without further max values were 178 and 388, respectively. This revealed purification. Acetonitrile (MeCN), dichloromethane 0 0 COC that the sugar conformation of 2 ,4 -BNA , which is (CH2Cl2), dichloroethane (DCE), triethylamine and restricted by a large seven-membered ring, is identical pyridine were distilled from CaH2. Tetrahydrofuran with the N-type sugar puckering fit to canonical A-form (THF) was distilled from CaH2 followed by LiAlH4 just Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 4 1227 Scheme 1. Reagents and conditions: (a) p-TsOHÁH2O, (CH2O)n, DCE, reflux, 3 h, 81%; (b) TBAF, THF, rt, 3 h, 91%; (c) 20% Pd(OH)2-C, cyclohexene, EtOH, reflux, 3 h, 89%. before use. All melting points were measured with a 128.7, 128.7, 129.8, 129.8, 132.3, 132.4, 132.6, 133.4, Yanagimoto micro melting point apparatus and are 135.4, 135.4, 135.4, 135.4, 136.9, 142.1, 149.4, 151.2, uncorrected. 1H NMR (270 or 300 MHz), 13C NMR 152.4, 164.4, 169.7, 170.4. Mass (FAB): m/z 814 (MHþ). 31 (67.8 or 75.5 MHz) and P NMR (202.4 MHz) spectra Anal. Calcd for C45H47N5O8SiÁ1/2H2O: C, 65.67; H, 5.88; were recorded on JEOL EX-270, JEOL-AL-300 and N, 8.51. Found: C, 65.44; H, 5.71; N, 8.42. JEOL GX-500 spectrometers, respectively. Chemical shifts are reported in parts per million downfield from 6-N-Benzoyl-3’-O-benzyl-5’-O-tert- tetramethylsilane or deuterated solvent as internal stan- butyldiphenylsilyl-4’-C-(hydroxymethyl)adenosine (6) 1 13 dard for H and C spectra, and 85% H3PO4 as external 31 K2CO3 (98 mg, 0.712 mmol) was added to a solution of standard for P spectra. IR spectra were recorded on a compound 5 (193 mg, 0.237 mmol) in MeOH (3.4 ml) at JASCO FT/IR-200 spectrometer. Optical rotations were 08C, and the mixture was stirred at the same temperature recorded on a JASCO DIP-370 instrument. Mass spectra for 1.5 h. After neutralization with a 10% aqueous HCl were measured on JEOL JMS-600 or JMS-700 mass solution (0.26 ml), the mixture was extracted with AcOEt. spectrometers. Column chromatography was carried out The organic extracts were washed with water and brine, using Fuji Silysia PSQ100B or FL-100D. Matrix-assisted dried over Na SO , and concentrated under reduced pres- laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) 2 4 Õ sure. The residue was purified by silica gel column chro- mass spectra were recorded on Bruker Daltonics matography [hexane/AcOEt (1:3, v/v)] to give compound Autoflex II TOF/TOF instruments.