Nearly all pharmaceuticals - heck nearly anything at all - contain mixed-enantiomers, with one the enantiomers active, and the other half usually inert.
They are marketing this as a whole new drug, when it's really their processing methods that are new, not the substance.
I'm skeptical that the Rs were responsible for the adverse effects, since most side-effects of SSRIs are due to the rise in serotonin itself. Which, by the way, heavily implies that it's not lowered serotonin that causes depression, but less sensitive specific serotonin receptors. Then the other serotonin receptors get harder hit, and you get lowered sex-drive, GI trouble, and such. Celexa's big claim to fame was that it hit only specific receptors, and consequently had a much lower side-effect profile that other SSRIs.
In fact the web page you include doesn't say that the R enantiomer of Celexa was causing trouble. It just says "In some cases, one enantiomer of a drug molecule may have a therapeutic effect while the other enantiomer may have no useful effect or an undesirable one." Some cases... a drug...may.. or...
Here's a factiod - there are eight chiral centers in cocaine. If just of them were oriented the opposite direction, it wouldn't make you high. Funny, I think that's the only thing I remember from 2nd semester OChem. :)
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Date: 2003-11-04 07:51 pm (UTC)From:Nearly all pharmaceuticals - heck nearly anything at all - contain mixed-enantiomers, with one the enantiomers active, and the other half usually inert.
They are marketing this as a whole new drug, when it's really their processing methods that are new, not the substance.
I'm skeptical that the Rs were responsible for the adverse effects, since most side-effects of SSRIs are due to the rise in serotonin itself. Which, by the way, heavily implies that it's not lowered serotonin that causes depression, but less sensitive specific serotonin receptors. Then the other serotonin receptors get harder hit, and you get lowered sex-drive, GI trouble, and such. Celexa's big claim to fame was that it hit only specific receptors, and consequently had a much lower side-effect profile that other SSRIs.
In fact the web page you include doesn't say that the R enantiomer of Celexa was causing trouble. It just says "In some cases, one enantiomer of a drug molecule may have a therapeutic effect while the other enantiomer may have no useful effect or an undesirable one." Some cases... a drug...may.. or...
Here's a factiod - there are eight chiral centers in cocaine. If just of them were oriented the opposite direction, it wouldn't make you high. Funny, I think that's the only thing I remember from 2nd semester OChem. :)