“…On the other hand, less reactive alkyl halides, such as homopropargyl tosylate, did not react at all. Accordingly, we turned our attention to a reductive alkylation approach, which has been used with considerable success on the solid phase, − including for the synthesis of aegPNA . It was, however, unknown from the literature whether the reductive alkylation will be compatible with the unprotected amino groups of the nucleobases C, A, and G. A model reductive alkylation reaction was, therefore, performed on a short APC-modified acpcPNA tetramer (G CT A) in the presence of butyraldehyde (30 equiv), NaBH 3 CN (60 equiv), and HOAc (60 equiv) in methanol.…”