SYNTHESIS OF SULFIDE-LINKED DI-OR OLIGONUCLEOTIDE ANALOGS AND INCORPORATION INTO ANTISENSE DNA OR RNA

摘要

An oligonucleotide analog of formula I in which one or more of the internucleoside phosphodiester groups are replaced by nonhydrolysable dialkyl sulfide, sulfoxide or sulfone linkages, such as in: in which R and R' are independently selected from H, DNA, RNA unsubstituted or substituted by I, nucleoside, nucleotides and analogs thereof; B is a base having a heterocyclic ring, X is independently O, CH2 or S; Y is independently H, OH or O-alkyl; Y' is H or O-alkyl; n is 0, 1 or 2; and m is 0 or an integer. These compounds are useful for binding selectively to complementary DNA or RNA strands (particularly mRNA strands) for use in regulating gene expression and as biological probes.