The Syntheses of Pyrimido‐pyridazinone and Pyrrolidino‐pyrimidinone 2′‐Deoxynucleoside Derivatives

Nucleosides that have ambivalent tautomeric properties have value in a variety of nucleic‐acid hybridisation applications and as mutagenic agents. We describe here synthetic studies directed to stable derivatives based on N⁴‐aminocytosine. Treatment of the 5‐(chloroethyl)‐4‐(triazol‐1‐yl)pyrimidine‐nucleoside derivative 1 with benzylhydrazine leads to the formation of the 6,6‐bicyclic pyrimido‐pyridazin‐7‐one 6 , in addition to the 5,6‐bicyclic derivative 7 . The 6,6‐bicyclic benzyl derivative 6 was converted to its 5′‐triphosphate for studies with DNA polymerases. Reaction of the triazole 1 with hydrazine, followed by acetylation, led to the desired acetylated 6,6‐bicyclic derivative 12 . However, the latter compound undergoes acyl migration followed by ring contraction to the 5,6‐bicyclic compound 13 on treatment with base.