Fluorescent indolylboronic acids that are useful reporters for the synthesis of boronolectins.

Lectins are known to regulate a wide variety of biological processes. Therefore, small molecule mimics of lectins have the potential to be used as novel diagnostic and therapeutic agents. In our combinatorial search for lectin mimics, we are in need a large number of boronic acids that change fluorescent properties upon carbohydrate binding. Along this line, a series of indolylboronic acids have been found to show significant fluorescent property changes upon binding with carbohydrates in 0.1 M phosphate buffer at physiological pH. These boronic acids will be very useful for the synthesis of lectin mimics for biological applications.