Improving Drug Design: Chemist Learn To Make Left Or Right Versions Of Synthetic Drug Molecules
Sunday, June 8, 2008 - 21:28
in Health & Medicine
A chemist has apparently solved a long-standing frustration in creating certain synthetic molecules that make up drugs, which could lead to better drugs with fewer side effects. Like human hands, many molecules that make up drugs come in two shapes, right and left. But usually only one of the two versions has the desired effect; the other is at best useless and sometimes even harmful. For example, side effects from the morning sickness drug Thalidomide resulted in profound birth defects because one shape of the molecule was therapeutic and the other was dangerous.