Phenylboronic acid-modified PEI was prepared by the reaction of 1800 Da PEI with 4-(bromomethyl)phenylboronic acid. It is much more effective than unmodified PEI for gene delivery. The covalently incorporated boronic acid groups achieve the greatly enhanced gene delivery efficiency partially through improving condensation ability to DNA, and partially through facilitating cell uptake due to int...

Four novel bis-boronic acid compounds were synthesised via copper catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reactions. Glucose selectivity was observed for a particular structural motif. Moreover, a new glucose selective fluorescent sensor was designed and synthesised as a result.

Boronic acid-containing block copolymers capable of solution self-assembly into micelles and reverse micelles in response to changes in temperature, pH, and sugar concentration were prepared by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization.

We report the direct chemoselective Brown-type oxidation of aryl organoboron systems containing two oxidizable boron groups. Basic biphasic reaction conditions enable selective formation and phase transfer of a boronic acid trihydroxyboronate in the presence of boronic acid pinacol (BPin) esters, while avoiding speciation equilibria. Spectroscopic investigations validate a base-promoted phase-s...

The reactions of Hoppe's lithiated carbamates with vinylboranes and boronic esters give allylic boranes/boronic esters, and subsequent addition of aldehydes provides a new route to enantioenriched homoallylic alcohols with high enantiomeric ratios and diastereomeric ratios. Specifically, reactions of sparteine-complexed lithiated carbamates with trans-alkenyl-9-BBN derivatives followed by addit...

A new fluorescent chemical sensor for glucosamine is reported. The sensor is based on a boronic acid-containing coumarin aldehyde and shows excellent selectivity for glucosamine by forming a boronic ester with the sugar diol as well as an iminium ion with the amine group of glucosamine. The sensor successfully discriminates glucosamine over other similar biomolecules in terms of both fluorescen...

Thiol esters and boronic acids react to produce ketones under aerobic conditions in the presence of catalytic quantities of a CuI or CuII salt. The reaction occurs at reasonable rates between room temperature and 50 degrees C at neutral pH using thiol esters derived from bulky 2 degrees amides of thiosalicylamides such as those based on N-tert-butyl-2-mercaptobenzamide. In this mechanistically ...

A simple Schiff base, 2-(2',4'-dihydroxybenzylidene)aminobenzeneboronic acid, was found to show a fluorescence enhancement in the presence of hydroxylated organotins in aqueous solution.

Control of boronic acid speciation is presented as a strategy to achieve nucleophile chemoselectivity in the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. Combined with simultaneous control of oxidative addition and transmetalation, this enables chemoselective formation of two C-C bonds in a single operation, providing a method for the rapid preparation of highly functionalized carbogenic frameworks.

Carbohydrates in various forms play vital roles in numerous critical biological processes including cell-cell adhesion and communication, embryo development, immune response, etc. Fluorescent sensors for such carbohydrates have a wide range of potential applications including glucose concentration determination, cell labeling and targeting based on carbohydrate biomarkers, as in vitro diagnosti...