The journey towards elucidating the anti-HCMV activity of alkylated bicyclic furano pyrimidines.

Bicyclic furanopyrimidines were recently discovered by us to be potent and selective inhibitors of VZV. Related studies to investigate the role of the sugar in this activity uncovered dideoxy furanopyrimidines as inhibitors of HCMV and this led to the preparation of highly modified long alkyl chain furanopyrimidines from the N- and O-alkylation of their parent bases. Herein we describe their synthesis and subsequent biological evaluation against HCMV.

Synthesis and antiviral evaluation of some 3'-fluoro bicyclic nucleoside analogues.

The synthesis of 3'-fluoro analogues of recently discovered highly potent anti-VZV furanopyrimidine deoxynucleosides (BCNAs) is herein reported, for both the alkyl and alkylphenyl series. The compounds are tested against a range of herpes viruses and display poor activity, strongly supporting the notion of the importance of the presence of a 3'-OH for antiviral activity.

Bicyclic nucleoside inhibitors of varicella-zoster virus (VZV): Pd-catalysed synthesis of 5-aryl derivatives and their biological evaluation.

We have recently reported the discovery of an entirely new category of potent antiviral agents based on novel deoxynucleoside analogues with unusual fluorescent bicyclic furano base moieties. In order to probe structure activity relationships we prepared a series of 5-aryl derivatives of the lead structures. We herein report the synthesis, characterization, and antiviral evaluation of these novel compounds.