I know that the drug Thalidomide is a chiral compound with one chiral center, therefore it has 2 enantiomers. I also know that one enantiomer is harmless, but the other is very harmful and causes birth defects. How exactly does this happen? Does it have something to do with the rotation of the molecule? Does it have something to do with how steric the compound becomes in its mirror image? I never fully understood this topic, and I can never seem to understand why a mirrored image of essentially the same compound has different properties.
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It has a physically different shape, and shape is hugely important in biology — particularly drug design. That mirror image might not fit its target the intended way anymore. It might even fit onto something else entirely, and that’s a problem when that means interfering with something important.
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