Purine and pyrimidine nucleoside analogs of 3'-C-methyladenosine as antitumor agents

3′-C-Methyladenosine (3′-Me-Ado) is a mechanism-based ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor endowed with antitumor activity against both human leukemia and carcinoma cell lines. In this paper, we report the synthesis and antitumor evaluation of a series of purine and pyrimidine 3′-C-methylribonucleoside analogs of 3′-Me-Ado. A stereoselective synthesis of the arabino analog of 3′-Me-Ado is also described. Among the tested compounds, only 3′-C-methyluridine showed moderate antitumor activity against human myelogenous leukemia K562 cell line