Nucleosides: Potential Drugs for AIDS Therapy

Recent methods for the synthesis of nucleoside derivatives which have been tested for anti-HIV activity, or which, because of their structure, may be good candidates for testing are described. The nucleoside derivatives considered in this review are 3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxynucleosides, 2′,3′-dideoxy- β′-fluoronucleosides, 2′,3′-dideoxy-3′-C-substituted nucleosides, 2′,3′-dideoxy-β-d-glycero-pent-2- enofuranosyl nucleosides, 2′,3′-dideoxynucleosides and carbocyclic, acyclic and C-nucleosides. Structure-activity relationships are also considered.