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CHIRALITY FROM OUTER SPACE. "A substantial fraction of the organic compounds on the early earth may have been derived from comet and meteorite impacts. The stable carbon isotope composition of individual amino acids in Murchison (meteorite) support an extraterrestrial origin -- rather than a terrestrial overprint of biological amino acids." https://lnkd.in/ekaC-VJ View in LinkedIn

THE $64,000 QUESTION. "Why are the molecules of life not ambidextrous? The interactions of light and magnetic fields might explain the way that life has a mysterious twist at its core." https://lnkd.in/eDJyJTn View in LinkedIn

NOT ALWAYS BETTER. "Optically pure pharmaceuticals may undergo racemization in vivo negating single enantiomer benefits or inducing unexpected effects...enantiomers may possess different carcinogenicity or teratogenicity." https://lnkd.in/ebgdD7x View in LinkedIn

OMEPRAZOLE (Prilosec for GI reflux) was an AstraZenica blockbuster drug. It is an unusual chiral molecule. When the patent ran out, AstraZenica launched Omeprazole (Nexium) which is the more potent S enantiomer. All about chirality and symmetry. https://lnkd.in/ehp6ekJ View in LinkedIn

CHIRAL SWITCHES. "Between 2001 and 2011 the FDA approved 9 single enantiomer versions of racemic products. Eight of the drugs had racemic precursors available in the United States." https://lnkd.in/e_xecdi View in LinkedIn

SEPRACOR, now known as Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, built a brilliant business by identifying and patenting the more potent isomers in racemic drugs, and those with less side effects. https://lnkd.in/eT77Pdx View in LinkedIn

"DRUG CHIRALITY is critical for therapeutic potency and efficacy, and there are over 2,500 chiral drugs. For example, only one form of dopamine is effective in treating Parkinson's disease, the other causes granulocytopenia. Only one form of thalidomide alleviates morning sickness, while the other form causes birth defects." https://lnkd.in/eqzkdcz View in LinkedIn

DRUG PROPERTIES. "Pharmacological and toxicological effects can coexist in the same enantiomer or both." https://lnkd.in/eSukgNj View in LinkedIn

PHARMA RACEMATES. "About 25% of common drugs are racemates, i.e., mixtures of their optical or spatial isomers (stereoisomers or enantiomers). The currently available evidence suggests that for the enantiomers of many chiral drugs there are clear functional differences between the constituent enantiomers and the racemate." https://lnkd.in/ef9kgYu View in LinkedIn

"20 MILLION CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS are known and a number of them are the so-called isomers. Isomers in chemistry are compounds with identical molecular formulas but differing in the nature of the sequence of the bonding of their atoms in space." https://lnkd.in/ef9kgYu View in LinkedIn