Highly Regioselective Methylation of Guanosine Nucleotides: An Efficient Synthesis of 7‐Methylguanosine Nucleotides

Abstract

This article describes a simple, reliable, efficient, and general method for the synthesis of 7‐methylguanosine nucleotides such as 7‐methylguanosine 5′‐O‐monophosphate (m7GMP), 7‐methylguanosine 5′‐O‐diphosphate (m7GDP), 7‐methyl‐2′‐deoxyguanosine 5′‐O‐triphosphate (m72′dGTP), and 7‐methylguanosine 5′‐O‐triphosphate (m7GTP) starting from the corresponding guanosine nucleotide is described. The present protocol involves methylation reaction of guanosine nucleotide using dimethyl sulfate as a methylating agent and water as a solvent at room temperature to provide the corresponding 7‐methylguanosine nucleotide in good yields with high purity (>99.5%). It is noteworthy that the present methylation reaction proceeds smoothly under aqueous conditions that is highly regioselective to afford exclusive 7‐methylguanosine nucleotide. © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Basic Protocol: Synthesis of 7‐methylguanosine nucleotides.