Reversible Recognition-Based Boronic Acid Probes for Glucose Detection in Live Cells and Zebrafish

Abstract

Glucose, a critical source of energy, directly determines the homeostasis of the human body. However, due to the lack of robust imaging probes, the mechanism underlying the changes of glucose homeostasis in the human body remains unclear. Herein, diboronic acid probes with good biocompatibility and high sensitivity were synthesized based on an <i>ortho</i>-aminomethylphenylboronic acid probe, phenyl(di)boronic acid (PDBA). Significantly, by introducing the water-solubilizing group -CN directly opposite the boronic acid group and -COOCH₃ or -COOH groups to the β site of the anthracene in PDBA, we obtained the water-soluble probe <b>Mc-CDBA</b> with sensitive response (<i>F</i>/<i>F</i>₀ = 47.8, detection limit (LOD) = 1.37 μM) and <b>Ca-CDBA</b> with the highest affinity for glucose (<i>K</i>_a = 4.5 × 10³ M^-1). On this basis, <b>Mc-CDBA</b> was used to identify glucose heterogeneity between normal and tumor cells. Finally, <b>Mc-CDBA</b> and <b>Ca-CDBA</b> were used for imaging glucose in zebrafish. Our research provides a new strategy for designing efficient boronic acid glucose probes and powerful new tools for the evaluation of glucose-related diseases.