Starting from D-xylose via a 3-deoxy-3a-C-ethynyl-3-fluoro sugar as a key intermediate, a novel fluorinated bicyclic purine nucleoside has been synthesized. A neighboring-group participation pathway and a mechanism involving an intramolecular cycloaddition induced by fluorine are proposed for the formation of the key intermediate and the bicyclic nucleoside, respectively.Nucleoside analogues, some of which remain in the forefront of anti-HIV and anti-HBV chemotherapeutic regimens, 1,2 play an important role in the control of viral diseases and cancer. However, side effects and drug-resistant mutants continue to be problematic with these agents. As a result, the development of structurally new, more potent, and less toxic nucleoside derivatives is in demand. 2 Modification of the carbohydrate moiety of nucleosides with the electron-withdrawing fluorine atom has been extensively applied in the design of such analogues, as this can greatly affect the electronic structure of a nucleoside often leading to dramatically improved activities 3 without significantly altering its shape and size. 4 In addition, the ethynyl group, which has characteristic electronic and structural features due to its sp-hybridization, is present in many biologically active compounds, 5 and its introduction into the natural nucleoside structure sometimes produces potent antimetabolites. 6-9,2b The 1-(3-C-ethynyl-b-D-ribopentofuranosyl) cytosine (Ecyd), for example, exhibits good activity against various human solid tumors and is undergoing human clinical trials. 10 These encouraging results have prompted us to synthesize nucleosides modified with both fluoro and ethynyl groups, such as 2¢-fluoro-2¢-deoxy-3¢b-C-ethynyl nucleosides or 3¢-fluoro-3¢-deoxy-3¢a-C-ethynyl nucleosides, in order to discover novel drugs. The related compounds, 3¢-fluoro-2¢,3¢-dideoxy-2¢,3¢-didehydro-4¢-ethynyl nucleosides 2a and 2¢-fluoro-2¢-deoxy-3¢a-C-ethynyl nucleosides 11 have been previously prepared among which the 3¢-fluoro-2¢,3¢-dideoxy-2¢,3¢-didehydro-4¢-ethynyl-D-adenine showed moderate anti-HIV activity without cytotoxicity. In the course of preparing a 2¢-fluoro-2¢-deoxy-3¢b-C-ethynyl derivative, an unusual fluorination of hydroxyl intermediate 4 was observed to furnish the 3-fluoro-3-deoxy-3a-Cethynyl sugar 6 and not the expected fluorination product 5. In a subsequent transformation, we have observed a fluorine-induced intramolecular cyclization to produce the novel fluorinated bicyclic purine nucleoside {(3aS,4R,6S,6aS)-3a-fluoro-6-(6-methoxy-7H-purin-7-yl)-3a,4,6,6a-tetrahydrofuro[3,2-c]-furan-4-yl} methanol (10).The starting material for our synthetic route (Scheme 1) was D-xylose (1), which was converted to the 3b-C-ethynyl sugar 2 in five steps by a known procedure. 12Benzoylation of 2 in a mixture of BzCl, DMAP, and Et 3 N followed by methanolysis with concentrated HCl in aqueous MeOH at 55 °C for 4 hours gave the intermediate 4 22,23 as the sole isomer in 75% yield. 1 H NMR spectrum of 4 showed that the proton signal for H-1 (d = 5.56 ppm) appeared...