The article "Chirality at Work" by A. Maureen Rouhi is an article that was assigned to read in organic chemistry I at USM. Around the time that this article was assigned we were discussing stereochemistry which is "the branch of chemistry that deals with spatial arrangements of atoms in molecules and the effects of these arrangements on the chemical and physical properties of substances" (yourdictionary). The author of this article, A. Maureen Rouhi, is the deputy editor-in-chief for Chemical & Engineering News magazine. She received her Ph. D in chemistry from the University of London and has covered stories ranging from biomaterials to the custom production of chemicals (C &EN). Rouhi's article was published by the American Chemical Society in the Chemical & Engineering News magazine (About C & EN). This magazine has an array of topics through its pages. These topics include business, government & policies, and science & technology. However, the topics of business and government & policies almost always are involved with science in some way. For instance, in this month's issue in the government & policy section there is a story titled "Greenpeace Targets Dupont Facilities" which is about an environmental group exposing the risks caused by using toxic chemicals (GTDF). That being said, the publisher's intended readers are scientists, chemists, or any person who has an interest in science. A person reading this article would most likely have some interest in chemistry. Otherwise, he or she would simply not finish reading it. The writer assumes that the reader is aware of meanings of the scientific words that she uses such as "enantiomer, chiral, and racemate". There were some things in this article that I didn't even understand.
The article begins by telling the story of a woman that has been found dead. Investigators found Robutussin in the woman's body but not enough that would kill her. Later, gastric content was analyzed and traces of levomethrorphan were found. Levomethorphan is an enantiomer of dextromethorphan which is the active drug found in Robitussim. These two chemicals combined together, being enantiomers of each other, are extremely toxic thus killing the woman. An enantiomer is a "stereoisomer whose molecules are nonsuperposable mirror images of each other" (Solomons). Here is an example of what enantiomers look like:
The article basically gives many examples of different enantiomers causing toxic effects on those who injested them. Racemic drugs are also mentioned and according to the article racemic drugs "can cause problems in the differences in the biological effects and in the pharmacokinetics of the enantiomers". Some of the different drugs are metabolized differently in different individuals causing some individuals to need more of the drug and some to require less. Rouhi discusses the idea that much more research should go into chiral technologies since so many deaths have resulted in the past from lack of knowledge on the subject. I agree that more research is needed for fully understanding how different drugs work together and, in a way, against each other. Through some of the research that has already been conducted researchers have found that new drugs are most likely to be developed as a single enantiomer and that this is best because of chiral switches.
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