Evidence for new enantiospecific interaction force in chiral biomolecules

Yael Kapon,Abhijit Saha,Tal Duanis-Assaf,Thijs Stuyver,Amir Ziv,Tzuriel Metzger,Shira Yochelis,Sason Shaik,Ron Naaman,Meital Reches,Yossi Paltiel

doi:10.1016/j.chempr.2021.08.002

Yael Kapon, Abhijit Saha + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2021.08.002

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Journal: Chem	Publication Date: Aug 27, 2021
Citations: 19	License type: publisher-specific-oa

Affiliation: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Weizmann Institute of Science

Abstract

Evidence for new enantiospecific interaction force in chiral biomolecules

Highlights

Nature is based on chiral molecules, namely molecules that appear in two forms, enantiomers, that are mirror images of each other
The focus of this work is related to a more fundamental question, i.e., why did Nature preserve chirality so persistently over the many millions years of evolution? In other words, does chirality per se, independent on the specific handedness, provide properties that serve an important role in Life? The ability of biological molecules to interact selectively with each other is at the heart of all biological processes and the basis of many pharmaceutical concepts
It has been suggested that an interaction term that involves the electrons’ spin can improve the enantioselectivity in reactions of chiral molecules, due to the symmetry constraints resulting from the dispersion-induced charge reorganization, which is accompanied by transient spin polarization[6]

Summary

Introduction

Nature is based on chiral molecules, namely molecules that appear in two forms, enantiomers, that are mirror images of each other. It has been suggested that an interaction term that involves the electrons’ spin can improve the enantioselectivity in reactions of chiral molecules, due to the symmetry constraints resulting from the dispersion-induced charge reorganization, which is accompanied by transient spin polarization (see Figure 1A)[6]. The concept of charge polarization accompanied by spin polarization was verified in experiments in which the interaction of chiral molecules with ferromagnetic substrates was probed[19,20].

Results

Conclusion