| Abstract: | Vinylsulfonylethyl (VSE) derivatives of the nucleic acid bases adenine, thymine, cytosine, and the nucleosides inosine and uridine have been prepared via a simple Michael reaction with divinyl sulfone. The VSE derivatives were grafted on a polyethyleneimine (PEI) backbone. PEI of different molecular weights (1400, 1800 and 50,000–100,000) were used and also two different molar ratios (1:1 and 1:2) of monomer to PEI were employed. From the 1H-NMR and elemental analysis, it appeared that in almost all instances the grafting was quantitative. In one case, both 1-VSE-thymine and 9-VSE-adenine were grafted on the same PEI backbone. Interactions between some of these polymers were investigated by UV spectroscopy. The expected complementary base pairing was observed only in DMSO–ethylene glycol solvent system but not in DMSO. The adenine polymer showed a one-to-one interaction with the thymine polymer. |
