Spectroscopic, quantum chemical, molecular docking and molecular dynamics investigations of hydroxylic indole-3-pyruvic acid: a potent candidate for nonlinear optical applications and Alzheimer’s drug

Abstract

In this paper, a complete theoretical investigation of hydroxylic indole-3-pyruvic acid (HIPyA) molecule was performed using the DFT quantum chemical, molecular docking and molecular dynamics calculations. The conformational analysis of HIPyA molecule was carried out using density functional theory quantum chemical calculations. The most stable structure of the studied molecule was predicted by means of DFT/B3LYP method with cc-pVTZ basis set. The simulated vibrational frequencies were assigned and proved to be in agreement with the available experimental FT-IR data. The effects of gas phase and solvents on UV-visible spectra of HIPyA molecule were simulated using TD-DFT/B3LYP method with cc-pVTZ basis set. The analysis of the density of states spectrum validates the frontier molecular orbitals results, which reveals the charge transfer interaction in HIPyA molecule. The molecular electrostatic potential surface confirms the electrophilic and nucleophilic reactive sites of the studied molecule. The natural bond orbital analysis evidences the bioactivity of the studied molecule. The obtained first order hyperpolarizability value is 33.596 times greater than urea, which confirms the nonlinear optical activity of HIPyA molecule. The molecular docking analysis reveals that the studied molecule under interest can act as a potent inhibitor against the amyloid β-protein (Aβ) enzyme, which causes the Alzheimer’s disease. The molecular dynamics analysis confirms the reliability of the docking results.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• Hydroxylic indole-3-pyruvic acid
• DFT calculations
• nonlinear optical analysis
• molecular docking
• molecular dynamics
• Alzheimer’s disease

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful Dr. Serda Kecet Gündüz and his Ph.D studend (Ms. Bilge Bicak) from University of Stanbul (Turkey) for provide us some computational times to finalize the Molecular Dynamic simulations of this work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author contributions

All the authors have contributed to this manuscript.

Stève-Jonathan Koyambo-Konzapa performed the DFT and MD simulations, analyzed the data and wrote the original draft; Gilbert Yvon Mbesse Kongbonga contributed to the section 3.8 and reviewed the draft; R. Premkumar analyzed the data and performed the molecular docking calculations; Berthelot Saïd Duvalier Ramlina Vamhindi contributed to the section 3.6 and reviewed the draft; Mama Nsangou has supervised this work and approved the final draft of the manuscript; A. Milton Franklin Benial performed some quantum chemical calculations and reviewed the draft.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no funding.