Photoinduced fluorescent cross-linking of 5-chloro- and 5-fluoro-4-thiouridines with thymidine

Two highly fluorescent, thermally stable diastereomeric photoadducts, 3a,b, are formed when either 5-chloro-4-thiouridine, 1, or 5-fluoro-4-thiouridine, 2, are photoexcited with 366 nm UV light in the presence of thymidine (T). 5-Fluoro-4-thiouridine, 2, exhibits photoreactivity much higher than that of the 5-chloro derivative 1. In both cases the photoreaction is very clean, leading to highly eficient conversion of the 5-halogeno-4-thiouridine (1, 2) and T to photoadducts 3a,b. The identity and structure of 3a was confirmed using mass spectrometry and 2-D NMR. The epimeric relationship of 3a,b was established by UV circular dichroism spectroscopy. The geometry of the fluorescent photoadduct is consistent with formation of an interstrand cross-link in a DNA duplex if 1 or 2 is flanked by T in an opposite strand.