Investigation on electronic structure, vibrational spectra, NBO analysis, and molecular docking studies of aflatoxins and selected emerging mycotoxins against wild-type androgen receptor

John A Agwupuye; Peter A Neji; Hitler Louis; Joseph O Odey; Tomsmith O Unimuke; Emmanuel A Bisiong; Ededet A Eno; Patrick M Utsu; Tabe N Ntui

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07544

Investigation on electronic structure, vibrational spectra, NBO analysis, and molecular docking studies of aflatoxins and selected emerging mycotoxins against wild-type androgen receptor

Heliyon. 2021 Jul 12;7(7):e07544. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07544. eCollection 2021 Jul.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Physical Sciences, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria.
² Computational Quantum Chemistry Research Group, Faculty of Physical Sciences, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria.
³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar, Nigeria.

Abstract

The geometry, frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs), vibrational, NBO analysis, and molecular docking simulations of aflatoxins (B1, B2, M1, M2, G1, G2), zearalenone (ZEA) emodin (EMO), alternariol (AOH), alternariol monoethyl ether (AMME), and tenuazonic acid (TeA) mycotoxins have been extensively theoretically studied and discussed based on quantum density functional theory calculations using Gaussian 16 software package. The theoretical computation for the geometry optimization, NBOs, and the molecular docking interaction was conducted using Density Functional Theory with B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p), NBO program, and AutoDock Vina tools respectively. Charge delocalization patterns and second-order perturbation energies of the most interacting natural bond orbitals (NBOs) of these mycotoxins have also been computed and predicted. Interestingly, among the mycotoxins investigated, aflatoxin G1 is seen to give the strongest stabilization energy while Zearalenone shows the highest tendency to accept electron(s) and emodin, an emerging mycotoxin gave the best binding pose within the androgen receptor pocket with a mean binding affinity of -7.40 kcal/mol.

Keywords: DFT; Molecular docking; Mycotoxins; NBO; Simulation; Structural.