Boronic acid-assisted detection of bacterial pathogens: Applications and perspectives

[Display omitted] •Boronate affinity ligands are promising alternatives for antibodies for pathogen recognition and detection.•The surface morphology of bacterial pathogens affect their sensitive recognition.•The simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens is achievable using boronic acid-based biosensors.•Quantitative multivariate algorithms can help to discriminate the signals from bacterial mixtures. Bacterial infections and foodborne illnesses, resulting from bacterial pathogens, have posed global public health issues. Precisely recognizing bacterial pathogens, along with signal readout and mathematical analysis, is the first and crucial step in ensuring their sensitive and specific detection, yielding prompt clinical treatment, and reducing instances of foodborne illness. Utilizing the abundant glycan moieties present on the outer surface of bacteria, boronic acid-based biosensing platforms have emerged as appealing solutions for facilitating the sensitive, accurate, rapid, and high-throughput screening of pathogenic bacteria. This review comprehensively introduces the updated applications of boronate affinity approaches in detecting ultra-low levels of bacterial pathogens and accurately distinguishing mixed pathogens in complex samples, highlighting the benefits of boronic acid ligands in the pathogen detection. Starting with an overview of the surface morphologies of bacterial pathogens and their role in facilitating robust boronate affinity interactions and the preparation of boronate affinity platforms, the applications of boronic acid-functionalized biosensors for bacterial detection are further summarized. Furthermore, the simultaneous detection of multiple bacterial pathogens and the effective discrimination of bacterial mixtures with the assistance of quantitative multivariate algorithms are illustrated. Additionally, perspectives that shed light on improving the sensitivity, specificity, robustness, pH adaptability, and applicability of boronic acid ligands, are highlighted. This review intends to offer valuable and state-of-the-art information regarding the preparation and applications of boronate affinity platforms for pathogen detection, contributing to clinical bacterial treatment and food safety.