A novel versatile phosphoramidite building block for the synthesis of 5′- and 3′-hydrazide modified oligonucleotides

We introduce a novel versatile phosphoramidite building block for the modification of oligonucleotides (ONs) with acyl hydrazides on the 5'- or 3'-terminus, or both. The reaction of these hydrazide functionalized ONs with 4-methoxyphenylaldehyde is demonstrated for solution derivatization. Hydrazides are considered nowadays as promising reactants, which show enhanced reactivity at neutral and slightly acidic conditions and higher stability of yielding products as compared to the aliphatic amines, which are broadly used for ONs derivatization. Our method to introduce hydrazides into ONs employs a phosphoramidite modifier designed to split, during ammonia or lithium hydroxide treatment, into two hydrazides via beta-elimination of a central bis-2-carbonylethoxysulfone unit. It allows the creation of ONs derivatized with a hydrazide moiety at the 5'-, 3'- and both 5- and 3'-termini, as well as two different hydrazide containing ONs at the same time, viz. in one sequence on the same solid support. In latter case one can, for example, synthesize two hydrazide containing ONs, where one is 5'-modified and second one is 3'-modified.