Tuning the Stability and Kinetics of Dioxazaborocanes

We investigated the equilibrium reaction of boronic acid (BA), diethanolamines (DEA), and 1,3,6,2-dioxazaborocanes (DOAB) in aqueous solutions, both theoretically and experimentally. Our findings show that the association constant can be adjusted by substituting BA and DEA derivatives, ranging from 10⁰ to 10³ M^-1, exhibiting a bell-shaped pH dependency. The highest stability was achieved when the pK_a values of DEA and BA were closely matched. This approach enabled the preparation of a highly stable DOAB under physiological conditions. Furthermore, the hydrolysis kinetics of DOABs were controllable over a range of five orders of magnitude based on the substituent's steric effect. In the slowest case, this resulted in quasi-static stability with only 1 % cleavage in the first hour, followed by a week-long cleavage period to reach equilibrium. These insights could establish a unique chemistry platform for designing scheduled cleavability on a day-to-week timescale, relevant to protein engineering, immunotherapy, and other smart drug delivery applications.