Abstract
Boron compounds now have many applications in a number of fields, including Medicinal Chemistry. Although the uses of boron compounds in pharmacological science have been recognized several decades ago, surprisingly few are found in pharmaceutical drugs. The boron-containing compounds epitomize a new class for medicinal chemists to use in their drug designs. Carboranes are a class of organometallic compounds containing carbon (C), boron (B), and hydrogen (H) and are the most widely studied boron compounds in medicinal chemistry. Additionally, other boron-based compounds are of great interest, such as dodecaborate anions, metallacarboranes and metallaboranes. The boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) has been utilized for cancer treatment from last decade, where chemotherapy and radiation have their own shortcomings. However, the improvement in the already existing (BPA and/or BSH) localized delivery agents or new tumor-targeted compounds are required before realizing the full clinical potential of BNCT. The work outlined in this short review addresses the advancements in boron containing compounds. Here, we have focused on the possible clinical implications of the new and improved boron-based biologically active compounds for BNCT that are reported to have in vivo and/or in vitro efficacy.
Highlights
Carbon chemistry has been widely studied over the past two centuries
He suggested that compared to single-fraction boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), the multi-fraction intensity modulation radiation therapy (IMRT) combined with single-fraction BNCT improves the treatment conformity and homogeneity and possibly local tumor control, especially for tumor whose volume is greater than 100 cm [127]
A recent study, published in Radiotherapy and Oncology, demonstrated the efficiency of BNCT in the treatment of locally recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients and the factors that are favorable for the treatment response and survival [128]
Summary
Carbon chemistry has been widely studied over the past two centuries. Despite its neighbor in the periodic table, the study of boron chemistry is relatively a newcomer compared to the chemistry of carbon. New biological activities of boron cage molecules and their complexes have been revealed, including anticancer activity, anti-HIV activity, anti-rheumatoid arthritis activity, drug delivery and imaging for diagnosis and treatment of cancer and probing protein-biomolecular interactions [1,22,23,24]. These and other new observations clearly show that boron-containing compounds have great unexplored potential for medical applications and in bioorganic chemistry. Various reviews and books have been recently published showing the advances in boron chemistry and its applications [1,21,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37], but this review will reveal many of the applications of boron chemistry in the medical field
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