Molecular structure, vibrational spectroscopic analysis (IR & Raman), HOMO-LUMO and NBO analysis of anti-cancer drug sunitinib using DFT method

Abstract

Oxindole and its derivatives have wide applications in different industries such as in synthetic & natural fibers, dyes for hair and plastic materials in addition to their biological importance. In the present study, one of the oxindole derivatives, N-(2-diethylaminoethyl)-5-[(Z)-(5-fluoro-2-oxo-1H-indol-3-ylidene)methyl]-2,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrrole-3-carboxamide (Sunitinib), which is used as an anti-cancer drug, was investigated in terms of structural, vibrational spectroscopic and theoretical analysis. The calculations have been performed for gaseous, aqueous and DMSO phases, respectively. Potential Energy Surface (PES) scan has been carrried out to obtain the most stable structures of all the phases of the title molecule using B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level and the geometrical variations among them are discussed. The solvent effect for Sunitinib in aqueous and DMSO phases have been performed by means of the self-consistent recognition reaction field (SCRF) method as implemented in the integral equation formalism polarized continuum model (IEFPCM). On the other hand, NBO analysis has been carried out to understand probable hydrogen bonding sites and charge transfers. Additionally, the HOMO and the LUMO energies are calculated using B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) to determine the intra molecular charge transfers (ICT) within the molecule and the kinetic stabilities for each phases. The molecular electrostatic potential surface (MESP) has been plotted over the optimized structure to estimate the reactive sites of electrophilic and nucleophilic attacks regarding Sunitinib molecule. The potential energy distribution (PED) has been calculated using VEDA4 program and vibrational assignments of the experimental spectra (IR & Raman) have been elucidated by means of the calculated vibrational spectra. The observed vibrational spectra of Sunitinib is compared with the calculated spectra obtained by using B3LYP functional both with 6-31G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets. Theoretical results indicate that the best correlation with experimental data is obtained with B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) method.