Influence of solvation on the spectral, molecular structure, and antileukemic activity of 1-benzyl-3-hydroxy-2-methylpyridin-4(1H)-one

Abstract

This research focuses on the synthesis, X-ray crystallography, spectral characterization, and the influence of solvents on electronic molecular properties, vibrational analysis, and electronic excitation along with molecular modeling investigation of 1-benzyl-3-hydroxy-2-methylpyridin-4(1H)-one (BHM) as a potential anti-cancer agent. The electronic properties were investigated using density functional theory (DFT) computation at the B3LYP-GD3BJ/6–311++G(d,p) level in different electronic media: acetone, chloroform, ethanol, and water. The experimental wavenumbers of the 19 most pronounced infrared active bonds juxtaposed by the theoretical wavenumbers in four solvents namely acetone, chloroform, ethanol, and water with their corresponding theoretical intensities. Hirshfeld surface analysis reveals the major intermolecular interactions in the molecule are H⋯H, C⋯H, and O⋯H. The energy gap obtained from the four different solvents (acetone, chloroform, ethanol, and water) shows that BHM has higher reactivity in chloroform with an energy gap of 2.8055 eV as compared to acetone (2.8979 eV), ethanol (2.9035 eV) and water (2.9225 eV). In-silico molecular modeling showed that BHM possesses good anticancer potency with computed mean binding affinities of −3.8, −5.3, and −4.7 for the different tested leukemic targets and therefore, suggesting the applicability of BHM as an effective therapeutic agent for cancer.