When Molecules of the Eye Turn into Their Mirror Images and Become Misfits : Right Hands in Left Gloves

Abstract

Diseases and healing are fully determined by the behaviour of molecules. In turn, all molecular reactions are determined by the shape of electron density clouds, forming the actual “bodies” of molecules. Molecular shapes which are mirror images but not superimposable on each other, just as left and right hands, are called “chiral”. Such chiral molecule pairs have equal energies and equal stabilities, but they fit differently into various surroundings. The left handed variants of amino acids dominate in life forming molecules on Earth, and the right-handed forms are “misfits” in living tissues. The purpose of this research is the detailed understanding of molecular processes causing left-to-right mutations of amino acids and peptides, some of which processes do contribute to cataract in the eye.