Reactions using tri-n-butylphosphine and dialkyldisulfides have been investigated for the synthesis of several types of thiosugar nucleosides. Thus the reaction of N6-benzoyl-2′, 3′-O-isopropylideneadenosine with a large excess of diisobutyldisulfide leads, after simple deprotection, to the transmethylation inhibitor SIBA (3) in quite good yield. Using limiting amounts of disulfide, the reaction leads instead to a pyrimidine ring-opened cyclonucleoside (11). The hydrate of 2′, 3′-O-cyclohexylideneuridine 5′-aldehyde reacts with the same reagents to give a 77% yield of the corresponding diisobutyl dithioacetal. The hydrate of N6-benzoyl-2′, 3′-O-isopropylideneadenosine 5′-aldehyde, however, gave only a single diastereomer of the 5′-alkylthio derivative of11.