This is a quote from a paper – https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-017-9538-5. If anyone’s interested
‘S (+) isomer is several times more potent than its R (−) enantiomer. The S (+) isomer is known to induce euphoria, whereas enantiomer R (−) causes depression. ‘
I’ve always associated euphoria/depression with sertonin. Can anyone clarify what those two terms are in the brain and how they relate to serotonin?
In: Biology
So it’s a bit of a weird concept, but imagine that you have a chemical and a nearly identical chemical. They contain the same atoms and the way the atoms are connected is the same, but they are mirror images of each other. (Your hands are enantiomers of each other, hopefully) Enantiomer is a more specific kind of isomer, which just means a chemical with the same atoms as another chemical. Here’s an [image](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiomer#/media/File:Milchs%C3%A4ure_Enantiomerenpaar.svg), not of serotonin, but of a simple enantiomer.
We call enantiomers R or S depending on the order of groups around them, from biggest to smallest.
Anyhow, it looks like serotonin enantiomers affect your brain differently, probably because one fits the serotonin receptor better than the other.
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