Dehalogenation of Halogenated Nucleobases and Nucleosides by Organoselenium Compounds

Halogenated nucleosides, such as 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine and 5-iodo-2'-deoxycytidine, are incorporated into the DNA of replicating cells to facilitate DNA single-strand breaks and intra- or interstrand crosslinks upon UV irradiation. In this work, it is shown that the naphthyl-based organoselenium compounds can mediate the dehalogenation of halogenated pyrimidine-based nucleosides, such as 5-X-2'-deoxyuridine and 5-X-2'-deoxycytidine (X=Br or I). The rate of deiodination was found to be significantly higher than that of the debromination for both nucleosides. Furthermore, the deiodination of iodo-cytidines was found to be faster than that of iodo-uridines. The initial rates of the deiodinations of 5-iodocytosine and 5-iodouracil indicated that the nature of the sugar moiety influences the kinetics of the deiodination. For both the nucleobases and nucleosides, the deiodination and debromination reactions follow a halogen-bond-mediated and addition/elimination pathway, respectively.