Heteroatom-rich organoboron compounds have attracted attention as modulators of enzyme function. Driven by the unmet need to develop chemoselective access to boron chemotypes, we report herein the synthesis of alpha- and beta-aminocyano(MIDA)boronates from borylated carbonyl compounds. Activity-based protein profiling of the resulting beta-aminoboronic acids furnishes selective and cell-active inhibitors of the (ox)lipid-metabolizing enzyme alpha/beta-hydrolase domain 3 (ABHD3). The most potent compound displays nanomolar in vitro and in situ IC50 values and fully inhibits ABHD3 activity in human cells with no detectable cross-reactivity against other serine hydrolases. These findings demonstrate that synthetic methods that enhance the heteroatom diversity of boron-containing molecules within a limited set of scaffolds accelerate the discovery of chemical probes of human enzymes.
