A two-step sulfurization for efficient solution-phase synthesis of phosphorothioate oligonucleotides

A solution-phase approach for the synthesis of phosphorothioate oligonucleotides that circumvents the use of chromatographic purifications of protected phosphorothioate intermediates was developed. Implementation of a two-step sulfurization protocol in the phosphoramidite method allows efficient isolation of the intermediate phosphorothioates by extractions. The viability of this approach is demonstrated by the synthesis of a hexameric phosphorothioate oligonucleotide fragment.