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Why is chirality important in drug synthesis?

Answer 1

Isaac Aronson

Because drugs work on biochemical systems, which are themselves handed and highly chiral.

Thalidomide is the best (worst!) example of how the wrong chirality can have disastrous consequences.

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Answer 2

Ava Andrews

Chirality is important in drug synthesis because enantiomers, which are mirror-image molecules with opposite chirality, can have different pharmacological effects in the human body. This means that one enantiomer of a drug may be therapeutically effective while the other may be inactive or even harmful. Therefore, controlling the synthesis of drugs to produce only the desired enantiomer is crucial to ensure the safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical products. Additionally, regulatory agencies often require pharmaceutical companies to demonstrate the purity and chirality of drug compounds before they can be approved for clinical use.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.