10.1021/ol100676j
The study presents a new method for the deprotection of amidine-type protecting groups, specifically N,N-dimethylformamidine (dmf) and N,N-dibutylformamidine (dbf) groups, on nucleobases during oligonucleotide synthesis under mild acidic conditions. The chemicals used include imidazolium triflate (IMT) and 1-hydroxybenztriazole (HOBt) for deprotection, which allowed for the efficient synthesis of 2′-O-methyl-RNA derivatives and unmodified RNA oligomers. The purpose of these chemicals was to facilitate the synthesis of RNA oligomers with base-labile groups, which are important for improving the properties of natural DNA and RNA molecules, such as hybridization, base recognition, and nuclease resistance, and have potential applications in gene therapy. The study also examined the stability of silyl-type protecting groups and the synthesis of base-labile modified oligomers, demonstrating the applicability of the new method to various RNA synthesis scenarios.