As a part of azide prodrug approach, we synthesized a 4-azido analog of ara-C (4) as a prodrug for ara-C. The compound 4 was obtained from 1-(beta-D-arabinofuranosyl)uracil (1) in three steps. At pH 7.0 and 11.0, a loss of UV absorption of the compound 4 was observed resulting from a transformation that was proved by identifying the transformed product 5 by 1-D, and 2-D NMR as well as tandem mass spectral studies. In NMR studies, changes in the chemical shifts were observed at positions 5, 6, 1', and 2' between the compounds 4 and 5. A molecular peak at m/z 270.1 (MH(+)) was observed in the mass spectra of compounds 4 and the transformed product 5. A fragment at 180.2 was identified to be the compound 6, containing the 6,2'-anhydro linkage of compound 5. The X-ray analysis indicated that compound 4 exists as 1-(beta-D-arabinofuranosyl)tetrazolo[4,5-c]pyrimidin-2-one, with the azide moiety cyclized. To understand if the chemical instability of the nucleoside 4 was due to the arabino configuration of 2'-OH or due to the azido moiety, we also studied 1-(2,3-dideoxy-2-fluoro-beta-D-arabinofuranosyl)tetrazolo[4,5-c]pyrimidin-2-one (11) and 4-azido-1-methyl-2-pyrimidinone (15). At pH 2.0 and 7.0, similar UV profiles were observed for compounds 11 and 15. However, at pH 11.0, lambda(max) shifted slowly to lower wavelength for both compounds 11 and 15. In a separate kinetic study, they were stable at pH 7.4 for up to 2.45 h. From the NMR and high-resolution mass spectral studies, it was concluded that in the presence of ammonium hydroxide, an addition of amine occurred at 6-position of compound 11. Thus, the stability profiles of compounds 4, 11, and 15 were different. The instability and the formation of 2',6-anhydro bond in compound 4 in nonacidic media was due to the presence of 2'-OH in the arabino configuration and probably not due to the azide group.