Dye Displacement Assay for Saccharides using Benzoxaborole Hydrogels.

Dye displacement assays are a simple but effective method to determine the concentration of target analytes. Previously, we have shown that phenylboronic acid pinacol ester hydrogels (borogels) can be used to develop a boronic acid-Alizarin red S dye displacement assay for the determination of fructose (orange to red). In this work, benzoxaborole hydrogels (BOBgels) were developed, and these BOBgels demonstrated an enhanced apparent binding affinity towards monosaccharides, in particular towards glucose.