Research Projects

A large number of nucleosides and their derivatives are in pharmacological markets for the treatment of a range of diseases. Cytarabine was the first nucleoside derivative approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia in 1969. Currently, there are five more FDA- and European Medicines Agency (EMA)-approved nucleoside analogues for the treatment of cancer. Azacitidine and decitabine were approved by FDA in 2004 and 2006 respectively as demethylating agents. Nucleosides are also serving as anti-cancer as they have also shown antiproliferative effect against various cancer cells. Nucleosides or their derivatives are also used in agrochemistry (herbicides, fungicides and insecticides). Apart from above discussed importance, nucleoside derivatives are also used as antibiotics. Currently there are 19 naturally occurring muraymycins in use. Moreover, C-2 functionalized nucleosides as core have been exclusively used for the synthesis of biologically potent molecules. Sofosbuvir is an US-FDA approved drug for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients and is a C-2 modified nucleoside having 2-deoxy-2-methyl-2-fluoro uridine as the main constituent. Similarly, Uprifosbuvir is another NS5b inhibitor in late-stage clinical trials for the treatment of HCV. About 68 marine derived natural nucleosides are found in the literature with a wide range of bioactivities. Several among them have already been approved by US-FDA for the treatment of patients with cancers and viral infections and some nucleosides are in late-stage clinical trials. About more than 50% of these marine derived nucleosides are β-D-Riboside derivatives. Although chemists started the synthesis of nucleosides in 1948, but still the preparations of nucleosides and their derivatives is a difficult and attractive target for the synthetic chemists because of their importance in pharmaceutical markets. So, in order to overcome the shortcomings, we envisioned to prepare marine based D-ribosides and C-2 functionalized nucleosides at large scale to meet the need of pharmaceutical companies. The synthetic schemes are designed in such a way that the drugs can be made available in an affordable rate to patients particularly in developing countries like India and at the same time IP can be generated.