Selective boronic acid fluorescent sensors for saccharide detection

• Main Author: Wang, Hui-Chen
• Published: University of Bath 2012
• Subjects: 547.037
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.582865

Boronic acids in orgamc chemistry are extensively used as building blocks in coupling reactions. Moreover, boronic acids also act as Lewis acids which enable them to easily form reversible covalent complexes with sugars, amino acids and other Lewis base donors. Taking this unique characteristic that two phenylboronic acids separated by a six-carbon amino linker are especially selective for D-glucose. The major part of this research is to modify boronic acid sensors with various fluorophores and material supports, not just for saccharide detection, but also for other applications such as protein / peptide separation in electrophoresis or surface plasmon resonance analysis. Saccharides also form glycoconjugates which are involved in cell-cell recognition / interactions in biological systems; therefore, the development of new boronic acid fluorescent sensors for bioimaging is also included within the research.