Scientists have for the first time been able to see in detail what happens inside a chiral molecule as it crystallizes, using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This breakthrough method might change the future of drug-development and chemical-analytical research.
Blimping Balloons: Chirality of Clusters
Molecules can have a particular structural orientation known as chirality, similar to how your hands are different from each other. Of course, not all molecules are completely symmetrical — some have two mirror-image forms called enantiomers that can have very different effects on biological systems.
Until now, it has been both time consuming and cumbersome to experimentally verify the chiral structure of a molecule, generally through optical methods that are only able to provide limited information. That said, the novel NMR approach developed by scientists at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and their collaborators from and Voxalytic GmbH offers the ability to determine directly also how atoms are positioned within a molecule—even more accurately – yielding an in-depth chiral knowledge of a given structure.
Drug Development and Chemical Research Speed-up
Fast and accurate determination of the chiral structure of molecules is a challenge in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
Molecular chirality was neglected in drug discovery for many years, with disastrous effects like the Thalidomide tragedy (which resulted in severe birth defects due to an effective treatment of pregnancy-related disorders). Following this, pharmaceutical companies were required to thoroughly investigate the chiral properties of their active ingredients for safety and efficacy.
The NMR technique reported by the team from KIT and Voxalytic can provide such information rapidly and reliably, which would help speed up this step and hence narrow down candidates for further drug testing. This might contribute to the design of improved and safer drugs, as well as repurposing of current drugs.
The ability to identify the 3D structure of chiral molecules could revolutionize the world of chemistry well beyond just pharmaceuticals, covering areas from material science to catalysis.
Conclusion
Development of this ground-breaking NMR method to define the chiral structure of molecules signifies a major step forward in the discipline of chemical analysis. This method, by which a much better and faster determination of the spatial arrangement of atoms in a molecule is possible than before, can revolutioniZe drug development, chemical research etc.. As this method is continually improved and developed by researchers, the future looks bright for similar developments in the years to come.
