The United States of America As Represented by the Department of Health

H Jeanette Thomas

John A Montgomery

William M Shannon

Peter K Chiang

John P Bader

Guilio L Cantoni

5'-Deoxy-5'-(isobutylthio)-3-deazaadenosine and a method for preparation of same. In the preparation, 3-deazaadenosine is utilized as a starting material and is chlorinated at the 5' position. Subsequently, the chloro group is converted to isobutylthio by reaction with isobutyl mercaptan in ethanol containing sodium methoxide giving the desired compound. A most preferred starting material, i.e., 3-deazaadenosine, was prepared according to the method of Montgomery et al, J. Heterocyclic Chem., 14:195 (1977). The key fusion of this process is 4,6-dichloroimidazo[4,5-c]pyridine with 1,2,3,5-tetra-O-acetyl-.beta.-D-ribofuranose, which, after removal of protective groups and reductive dechlorination of the chlorine at 6, gives 3-deazaadenosine. This new compound has good activity as an adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy) hydrolase inhibitor and has shown activity against Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) in chick embryo cells and Gross murine leukemia virus (Gross MLV) in mouse embryo cells, where the activity is as a non-competitive inhibitor of AdoHcy hydrolase showing A K.sub.i of 0.4 mM.

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Birmingham, AL, United States of America

H Jeanette Thomas