Materials Established for Enantioselective Release of Chiral Compounds

Abstract

The importance of chiral compounds has been widely recognized. Enantioselectively controlled release of the desired enantiomer from a racemate while retarding the other isomer provides a novel route toward practical applications of biologically chiral molecules. Such processes may maximize the efficacy while minimizing the dosage and frequency of chiral compounds. So far, exciting achievements have been made in enantioselective release (ESR), which can be classified into two main groups according to the essential strategy: (1) chiral interactions occurring between chiral compounds and chiral matrices (“enantioselective interaction” strategy); and (2) recognizing sites inside molecular-imprinting polymers (MIPs; “key-to-lock” strategy). The chiral compounds of interest are not limited to chiral drugs, but also include other biologically important chiral compounds (e.g., amino acids). Based on our studies, this article reviews the state-of-the-art techniques and materials systems toward ESR. The emphasis is...