An expeditious synthesis of modified purine bases and nucleosides bearing a difluoromethyl group in position 6 is described starting from the corresponding 6-(hydroxymethyl)purine derivatives. Their oxidation using Dess-Martin reagent gave 6-formylpurines that were converted to the title compounds by reaction with Deoxofluor. 6-(Difluoromethyl)purine ribonucleoside exerted significant cytostatic effect against leukemia cell lines.
purines - nucleobases - nucleosides - fluorination - antineoplastic activity