For many decades, uracil has been an antineoplastic agent used in combination with tegafur to treat various human cancers, including breast, prostate, and liver cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the molecular features of uracil and its derivatives. Herein, the molecule's 5-hydroxymethyluracil has been thoroughly characterized by NMR, UV-Vis, and FT-IR spectroscopy by means of experimental and theoretical analysis. Density functional theory (DFT) using the B3LYP method at 6-311++G(d,p) was computed to achieve the optimized geometric parameters of the molecule in the ground state. For further investigation and computation of the NLO, NBO, NHO analysis, and FMO, the improved geometrical parameters were utilized. The potential energy distribution was used to allocate the vibrational frequencies using the VEDA 4 program. The NBO study determined the relationship between the donor and acceptor. The molecule's charge distribution and reactive regions were highlighted using the MEP and Fukui functions. Maps of the hole and electron density distribution in the excited state were generated using the TD-DFT method and PCM solvent model in order to reveal electronic characteristics. The energies and diagrams for the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) were also provided. The HOMO-LUMO band gap estimated the charge transport within the molecule. When examining the intermolecular interactions in 5-HMU, Hirshfeld surface analysis was used, and fingerprint plots were also produced. The molecular docking investigation involved docking 5-HMU with six different protein receptors. Molecular dynamic simulation has given a better idea of the binding of the ligand with protein.
Keywords: DFT calculation; cancers; molecular docking; molecular dynamic simulation; thermodynamic properties; uracil.