The efficient synthesis, antiviral activity, and duplex-stabilizing properties of both isomers of the 2'-fluoro analogue of Northern methanocarbathymidine (N-MCT), 2 and 3, are reported. We show that 2'-F incorporation on the N-MCT scaffold has a strong stabilizing effect on duplex thermal stability.

We compare the duplex stabilizing properties of 2'-fluorinated nucleic acid analogues with furanose and non-furanose ring systems and dissect the relative contributions of hydration, sugar conformation, and fluorine configuration toward the overall T(m) value. We find that the stabilization imparted by fluorine substitution is additive over that obtained by restricting the conformation of the sugar ring itself. Our studies support further evaluation of fluorinated nucleic acid analogues with non-furanose sugar rings as surrogates of 2'-F RNA for therapeutic antisense applications.