The present invention provides gapped oligomeric compounds comprising at least one 5′-substituted P-D-2′-deoxyribonucleoside in the gap region. Certain such gapped oligomeric compounds are useful for hybridizing to a complementary nucleic acid, including but not limited to, nucleic acids in a cell. The oligomeric compounds provided herein have improved properties such as selectivity, potency and improved proinflammatory profile. In certain embodiments, hybridization results in modulation of the amount of activity or expression of the target nucleic acid in a cell.