Porphyrin-Based Fluorescent Sensors for Saccharides

Saccharides are essential for the activities of life systems by providing carbon resources and energy. Therefore, the innovation of quantitative analytical methods for sensing a target saccharide in a complicated biological sample is meaningful. Porphyrin is a family of aromatic compounds with a macrocyclic structure that built up with four pyrrolic subunits. In general, porphyrins are chemically stable and exhibit excellent photophysical properties such as large molar extinction coefficient and long emission wavelength, making them suitable for application in biological analysis. In this review, we tried to discuss the research progresses on porphyrin based molecular sensors for saccharide recognition. We hope that these discussions would inspire the further development of practical and convenient porphyrin-based sensors for detecting saccharides in real biological samples.