Boronic acid compounds have been used, because of their unique structural features, for the development of potent enzyme inhibitors, boron neutron capture agents for cancer therapy, and as antibody mimics that recognize biologically important saccharides. Consequently, there has been a surge of interests in boronic acid compounds. This study reviews the recent development in this area during the last six years.

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Carbohydrate antigens with subterminal fucosylation have been implicated in the development and progression of several cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fluorescent sensors targeting fucosylated carbohydrate antigens could potentially be used for diagnostic and other applications. We have designed and synthesized a series of 26 diboronic acid compounds as potential fluorescent sensors for such carbohydrates. Among these compounds, 7q was able to fluorescently label cells expressing high levels of sLex (HEPG2) within a concentration range of 0.5 to 10 microM. This compound (7q) did not label cells expressing Lewis Y (HEP3B), nor cells without fucosylated antigens (COS7). This represents the first example of a fluorescent compound labeling cells based on cell surface carbohydrate structures.

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For Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.

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Supramolecular enantiodifferentiating photoisomerization of (Z)-cyclooctene (1Z) to the chiral (E)-isomer (1E) via inclusion and sensitization by modified alpha-, beta-, and/or gamma-cyclodextrin derivatives, possessing benzoate (2a, 3a, 4a), isomeric phthalates (3b-d), and tethered benzamide (3e) chromophores, has been investigated in aqueous methanol solutions at varying temperatures. The photostationary-state 1E/1Z ratios obtained upon sensitization with 2-4 in 1:1 water-methanol reached 0.4-0.8, which are higher than the value of ca. 0.25 reported for sensitizations by conventional alkyl benzoates in hydrocarbon solvents, although the ratio was reduced to 0.2-0.4 in water or methanol. The sensitizations of 1Z by alpha- and gamma-cyclodextrin benzoates (2a, 4a) with size-mismatched cavities gave 1E of poor enantiomeric excesses (ee's) smaller than 3 and 5%, respectively. In contrast, beta-cyclodextrin derivatives (3a-e) afforded much higher ee's of up to 24%, depending on the solvent composition. Thus, the modification of cyclodextrin with a sensitizing group successfully enhanced the product through the excited-state supramolecular interaction within the cavity. Interestingly, the product ee's obtained with benzoate 3a and methyl phthalate 3b are not a simple function of either temperature or solvent, but are nicely correlated with the host occupancy or the percentage of occupied host. This means that the entropy factor plays an insignificant role in this supramolecular photochirogenesis system, which is in sharp contrast to the decisive role of entropy in the conventional (nonsupramolecular) counterpart performed in homogeneous solutions, where an inversion of product chirality by temperature variation is reported to occur.

[structure: see text] A new boronic acid fluorescent on-off reporter compound (1) was synthesized. This fluorescent sensor shows a 41-fold emission intensity increase upon addition of 50 mM fructose in 0.1 M aqueous phosphate buffer at pH 7.4.