Synthetic mRNA capping

• Fabian Muttach,
• Nils Muthmann and
• Andrea Rentmeister

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 2819–2832, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.274

• -the art methods and give directions for choosing the appropriate approach. We also discuss the preparation and properties of mRNAs with non-natural caps providing novel features such as improved stability or enhanced translational efficiency. Keywords: cap analogue; cap synthesis; click chemistry

• ′-triphosphate. The most commonly used cap analogue is m7GpppG but several modified or alternative cap analogues are also accepted by RNA polymerases. Therefore, this route can be used to install non-natural dinucleotides at the 5′-end that are accessible for a further chemical reaction [46]. One often

• overlooked limitation of co-transcriptional capping is that not all mRNA obtained from IVT is capped, simply because the cap analogue competes with GTP as initiator nucleotide. Importantly, the ratio of capped/uncapped mRNA is usually not visible on a gel. This issue can be mitigated by lowering the GTP