A series of 2′-substituted cyclobutyl nucleoside analogs were efficiently prepared by constructing the core cyclobutyl ring using different [2+ 2] cycloaddition approaches. The triphosphate derivative of a cyclobutyl nucleoside was also synthesized and evaluated against wild-type and mutant HIV reverse transcriptases (RT). Whereas the nucleoside analogs were inactive against HIV-1 in culture, the nucleotide showed good activity not ...