Boronates as hydrogen peroxide–reactive warheads in the design of detection probes, prodrugs, and nanomedicines used in tumors and other diseases

Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) has always been a topic of great interests attributed to its vital role in biological process. H 2 O 2 is known as a major reactive oxygen species (ROS) which is involve in numerous physiological processes such as cell proliferation, signal transduction, differentiation, and even pathogenesis. A plenty of diseases development such as chronic disease, inflammatory disease, and organ dysfunction are found to be relevant to abnormality of H 2 O 2 production. Thus, imminent and feasible strategies to modulate and detect H 2 O 2 level in vitro and in vivo have gained great importance. To date, the boronate-based chemical structure probes have been widely used to address the problems from the above aspects because of the rearranged chemical bonding which can detect and quantify ROS including hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and peroxynitrite (ONOO − ). This present article discusses boronate-based probes based on the chemical structure difference as well as reactivities to H 2 O 2 and ONOO − . In this review, we also focus on the application of boronate-based probes in the field of cell imaging, prodrugs nanoplatform, nanomedicines, and electrochemical biosensors for disease diagnosis and treatment. In a nutshell, we outline the recent application of boronate-based probes and represent the prospective potentiality in biomedical domain in the future. Graphical abstract