Reconstructive Approach to the Regiospecific Synthesis of N9‐Alkylated Purines

A regiospecific synthesis of N 9‐alkylated purines as novel acyclic nucleosides was developed. This approach is based on reconstructive methodology involving the construction of a target heterocyclic scaffold on a readily available 5‐aminotetrazole moiety, which is subsequently cleaved under reductive conditions due to azido‐tetrazole tautomerism. It appeared that the rate of reduction for the azide fragment in 6‐nitro‐7‐alkylaminotetrazolo[1,5‐ a ]pyrimidines is much greater than the rate of nitro group reduction. Treatment of these heterocycles with hydrogen over a palladium catalyst resulted in the formation of triaminopyrimidines in excellent yields through the reduction of both the azide and nitro group. Triaminopyrimidines were transformed into the desired N 9‐alkylated purines, and an analog of the marketed drug penciclovir was synthesized by the developed method.