Probing the Interactions between Boronic Acids and cis-Diol-Containing Biomolecules by Affinity Capillary Electrophoresis

The affinity of boronic acids to cis-diol-containing biomolecules has found wide applications in many fields, such as sensing, separation, drug delivery, and functional materials. A sound understanding of the binding interactions will greatly facilitate exquisite applications of this chemistry. Although a few analytical tools have been available for the characterization of the interactions, these techniques are associated with some apparent drawbacks, so they are only applicable to a limited range of boronic acids and cis-diol-containing biomolecules. Therefore, a widely applicable method is still greatly needed. In this work, an affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) method was established and validated to probe the interactions between boronic acids and cis-diol-containing biomolecules. The method was proven to be applicable to almost all types of cis-diol-containing biomolecules and boronic acids. Based on this method, a quantitative, comparative study on the interactions between 14 boronic acids tha...