Interaction of 5-Fluorouracil on the Surfaces of Pristine and Functionalized Ca12O12 Nanocages: An Intuition from DFT

Goodness J Ogunwale; Hitler Louis; Tomsmith O Unimuke; Gideon E Mathias; Aniekan E Owen; Henry O Edet; Obieze C Enudi; Esther O Oluwasanmi; Adedapo S Adeyinka; Mohsen Doust Mohammadi

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c03635

Interaction of 5-Fluorouracil on the Surfaces of Pristine and Functionalized Ca₁₂O₁₂ Nanocages: An Intuition from DFT

ACS Omega. 2023 Apr 3;8(15):13551-13568. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c03635. eCollection 2023 Apr 18.

Authors

Goodness J Ogunwale^{1

2}, Hitler Louis^{1

3}, Tomsmith O Unimuke^{1

3}, Gideon E Mathias^{1

3}, Aniekan E Owen⁴, Henry O Edet^{1

3}, Obieze C Enudi^{1

2}, Esther O Oluwasanmi^{1

2}, Adedapo S Adeyinka⁵, Mohsen Doust Mohammadi⁶

Affiliations

¹ Computational and Bio-Simulation Research Group, University of Calabar, Calabar540221, Nigeria.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan200005, Nigeria.
³ Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Physical Sciences, University of Calabar, Calabar540221, Nigeria.
⁴ School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, St AndrewsKY16 9ST, Scotland.
⁵ Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg2006, South-Africa.
⁶ School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran14176, Iran.

Abstract

The utilization of nanostructured materials for several biomedical applications has tremendously increased over the last few decades owing to their nanosizes, porosity, large surface area, sensitivity, and efficiency as drug delivery systems. Thus, the incorporation of functionalized and pristine nanostructures for cancer therapy offers substantial prospects to curb the persistent problems of ineffective drug administration and delivery to target sites. The potential of pristine (Ca₁₂O₁₂) and formyl (-CHO)- and amino (-NH₂)-functionalized (Ca₁₂O₁₂-CHO and Ca₁₂O₁₂-NH₂) derivatives as efficient nanocarriers for 5-fluorouracil (5FU) was studied at the B3LYP-GD3(BJ)/6-311++G(d,p) theoretical level in two electronic media (gas and solvent). To effectively account for all adsorption interactions of the drug on the investigated surfaces, electronic studies as well as topological analysis based on the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and noncovalent interactions were exhaustively utilized. Interestingly, the obtained results divulged that the 5FU drug interacted favorably with both Ca₁₂O₁₂ and its functionalized derivatives. The adsorption energies of pristine and functionalized nanostructures were calculated to be -133.4, -96.9, and -175.6 kcal/mol, respectively, for Ca₁₂O₁₂, Ca₁₂O₁₂-CHO, and Ca₁₂O₁₂-NH2. Also, both topological analysis and NBO stabilization analysis revealed the presence of interactions among O₃-H₃₂, O₂₇-C₂₄, O₁₀-C₂₇, and N₂₄-H₃₂ atoms of the drug and the surface. However, 5FU@Ca₁₂O₁₂-CHO molecules portrayed the least adsorption energy due to considerable destabilization of the molecular complex as revealed by the computed deformation energy. Therefore, 5FU@Ca₁₂O₁₂ and 5FU@Ca₁₂O₁₂-NH₂ acted as better nanovehicles for 5FU.