Chirality in Drug Design and Synthesis is a collection of papers that discusses the property of asymmetry in the structural and synthetic chemistry of natural products, including the significance of chirality in medicinal chemistry. These papers examine the need for the preparation and study of pure enantiomers of chiral drug substances and their mechanism of interaction with enzymes and receptors. These papers also investigate the techniques in studying these interactions, as well as analyze the methods for their synthesis in enantiomerically pure form. One paper discusses the pharmacological and pharmacokinetic analyses made that point to the differences in the activity and disposition of enantiometric pairs. Another paper reviews the implications of the neglect of stereoselectivity at the different levels during the examination process of racemic drugs. Since no general guidelines exists for the development of drugs with chiral centers, one paper suggests a case-by-case approach in evaluating the safety and efficacy of drugs, particularly as regards how isomers differ in their effects. This collection is suitable for the pharmacologist, medicinal chemists, toxicologists, mechanistic chemists and synthetic organic chemists.
