Abstract:
Recently, reversible click reactions have found numerous applications in chemical biology, supramolecular
chemistry, and biomedical applications. Boronic acid (BA)-mediated cis-diol conjugation is one of the beststudied reactions among them. An excellent understanding of the chemical properties and biocompatibility of
BA-based compounds has inspired the exploration of novel chemistries using boron to fuel emergent
sciences. This topical review focuses on the recent progress of iminoboronate and salicylhydroxamic–
boronate constituted reversible click chemistries in the past decade. We highlight the mechanism of reversible
kinetics and its applications in chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, biomedical devices, and material
chemistry. This article also emphasizes the fundamental reactivity of these two conjugate chemistries with
assorted nucleophiles at variable pHs, which is of utmost importance to any stimuli-responsive biological and
material chemistry explorations.
