Synthesis and Conformational Study of 3-Hydroxy-4-(Hydroxymethyl)-1-Cyclohexanyl Purines and Pyrimidines

The cyclohexane nucleosides with a 1,4-relationship between nucleoside base and hydroxymethyl moiety were synthesized using a conjugated addition reaction of the nucleobases to ethyl 1,3-cyclohexadiene-1-carboxylate and hydroboration of the cyclohexenyl precursor. The lack of antiviral activity of the compounds was correlated with the conformation of these nucleosides as deduced from NMR and X-ray analysis.