Deprotection of nucleosides by lysine-assisted methanolysis of esters and amides

A deacylation method was developed based on lysine-assisted methanolysis of nucleoside-derived esters and arylamides. The present methodology complements well-established deacylation methods, using a minimum molar equivalency of lysine and methanol under mild heating to generate the deacylated nucleoside and recyclable lysine and volatile methyl esters as byproducts. A variety of acylated canonical nucleosides and hydrolytically labile non-canonical nucleosides like nicotinamide riboside (NR) and its reduced form (NRH) were deprotected under such lysine-assisted conditions, demonstrating the versatility of this approach. Having determined this one-pot process’s E-factor and reaction mass index, we find this method greener than the more established deacylation processes.