Sleeping pill ‘thalidomide’ sold as an anti-morning effect
10,000 birth defects due to drug side effects
Causes of ‘chirality’ with the same molecular structure but different directions
Seoul National University develops ultra-sensitive molecular chirality analysis method
Discrimination of chirality in visible light without sample damage
[앵커]
Even if the atomic composition and bonding are the same, when the left and right structures are flipped, it is called ‘chirality’ that has completely different properties. This chirality is known to cause side effects of medicines and chemicals.
However, a research team in Korea has developed an analysis system that can easily distinguish molecular chirality without special tools and published it in the international journal ‘Nature’.
Reporter Yang Hwa-yeong covered the story.
[기자]
The ‘thalidomide case’, one of the worst drug side effects in history
Thalidomide, developed by a German pharmaceutical company as a sleeping pill in 1957, has a sedative effect and has been widely sold to pregnant women as an ‘anti-morning pill’.
Although it was confirmed that there were no side effects in animal experiments, this drug resulted in the birth of 10,000 deformed babies worldwide.
It was because of ‘chirality’, which has the same molecular structure of the drug, but has a different direction.
The right and left hands have a symmetrical structure, but they do not completely overlap each other.
These structures are said to be chiral and directional.
Since drug efficacy varies depending on chirality, it is very important to differentiate between them, but existing methods have limitations such as taking a long measurement time and damaging the sample.
However, domestic researchers have developed an analysis system that can easily distinguish molecular chirality with the naked eye without special tools.
When a transparent liquid that seems to have no significant difference is put into the developed analysis system, molecules on the left hand appear purple and molecules on the right appear red.
The core is a regular arrangement of gold nanoparticles that react to the chiral structure, and depending on the directionality, only specific light is emitted out of visible light, making it easy to distinguish with the naked eye.
[김령명 / 서울대학교 재료공학부 박사과정(제1저자) : 저희가 만든 금 나노 입자의 정렬 구조를 활용하면 이 분자와 빛 간의 상호작용을 극대화할 수 있어서 이 분자의 왼손성과 오른손성을 더 잘 구별할 수 있는 시스템을 개발했습니다.]
The developed analysis system has the advantage of being able to find chiral molecules even in small amounts and discriminate them in visible light without sample damage.
[남기태 / 서울대 재료공학부 교수 : 저희가 만든 새로운 센서 플랫폼을 이용하면 왼손 모양을 가진 것들이 얼마나 존재하는지 그리고 이것들이 존재하기 위해서는 어떻게 어떤 합성법을 해야 되는지에 대한 것들도 새롭게 저희 기술을 통해서 만들 수 있을 것이라고 생각이 들고요.]
About half of synthetic drugs are known to be chiral drugs, but a perfect distinction has not been established and remains a challenge for both academia and industry.
The results of this research, which can easily and quickly distinguish the chirality of molecules, were published in the world-class international journal ‘Nature’.
This is YTN Science’s Hwayoung Yang.
YTN Hwayoung Yang (hwe@ytn.co.kr)
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