Synthesis of acyclothymidine triphosphate and alpha-P-boranotriphosphate and their substrate properties with retroviral reverse transcriptase.

[reaction: see text] The first example of an acyclonucleoside alpha-P-boranotriphosphate has been synthesized via a phosphoramidite approach in a one-pot reaction with good yield. The presence of the alpha-P-BH(3) in 5b results in a 9-fold increase in efficiency of incorporation by MMLV retroviral reverse transcriptase relative to non-boronated 5a in pre-steady-state conditions. The preliminary results indicate that acyclonucleoside alpha-P-boranotriphosphates may have promising applications as a probe of enzyme mechanisms and in the design of new antiviral drugs.