Carbocyclic nucleosides are nucleoside derivatives with special structures and interesting bioactivities, especially antiviral activities. In the past decades much attention has been paid to the synthesis and bioactivity screen of carbocyclic nucleosides in searching for new antiviral drugs. In this paper, the synthesis of various carbocyclic nucleosides is reviewed and different synthetic routes are analyzed briefly.

Key words: carbocyclic nucleoside, antiviral activity, synthesis