Amide Backbones with Conformationally Restricted Furanose Rings: Highly Improved Affinity of the Modified Oligonucleotides for Their RNA Complements

Abstract

An increased stability of duplexes between amide-modified oligonucleotides (depicted on the right) and RNA was achieved by the introduction of 2′-OMe groups. Since the modified oligonucleotides display a very high affinity for their RNA complement and are more stable towards nucleases, they can be considered as promising antisense agents. X = H, OH, OMe; Y = H, OMe.