Mechanism of Intermolecular Electron Transfer in Bionanostructures

Abstract

AbstractHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. Most patients are inoperable and hepatoma cells are resistant to conventional chemotherapies. Thus, the development of novel therapies for HCC treatment is of paramount importance. Amongst different alimentary factors, vitamin C and vitamin K3 In the present work, it has been shown that the treatment of mouse hepatoma MH-22A cells by vitamin C and vitamin K3 at the ratio of 100:1 greatly enhanced their cytotoxicity. When cells were subjected to vitamin C at 200 μM or to vitamin K3 at 2 μM separately, their viability reduced by only about 10%. However, when vitamins C and K3 were combined at the same concentrations, they killed more than 90% of cells. To elucidate the mechanism of the synergistic cytotoxicity of the C&K3 mixture, theoretical quantum-chemical analysis of the dynamics of intermolecular electron transfer (IET) processes within the complexes containing C (five forms) and K3 (one form) has been carried out. Optimization of the ground state complex geometry has been provided by means of GAUSSIAN03 package. Simulation of the IET has been carried out using NUVOLA package, in the framework of molecular orbitals (MO). The rate of IET has been calculated using Fermi Golden rule. The results of simulations allow us to create the preliminary model of the reaction pathway.KeywordsAscorbateMenadioneCytotoxicityChemotherapyQuantum-chemical analysisFermi Golden rule