A Combined Molecular Docking and Electronic Structure Study for a Breast Cancer Drug Design

The molecular docking of tamoxifen’s metabolites, 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen, N-desmethyl-tamoxifen, and 4-hydroxy-N-desmethyl-tamoxifen, in estrogen and progesterone hormone receptors was studied in aqueous solution. The metabolites 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen, N-desmethyl-tamoxifen, and 4-hydroxy-N-desmethyl-tamoxifen exhibit a binding energy in the estrogen receptor cavity of −10.69 kcal/mol, −10.9 kcal/mol, and −11.35 kcal/mol, respectively, and −1.45 kcal/mol, −9.29 kcal/mol, and −0.38 kcal/mol in the progesterone receptor. This indicates a spontaneous interaction between the metabolites and the active sites in the hormone receptors. Docking has an adequate accuracy for both receptors, and from this calculation the active site residues were defined for the different metabolites and the estrogen and progesterone receptors. Also, the chemical reactivity of the amino acids of the active sites of each metabolite was determined. These reactivity properties were obtained within the framework of density functional theory, using the functional M06 with the basis set 6-31G (d). The results indicate that in the estrogen receptor, the highest charge transfer of the three analyzed metabolites is in the union of the metabolite and the Leu346-Thr347 residue. The progesterone receptor shows minor tendency to react with higher hardness values than the estrogen receptor. The hydrogen bonds are three for the estrogen receptor in two different metabolites, while in progesterone only one is formed with the N-desmethyl-tamoxifen metabolite

Theoretical Study of Copper Complexes: Molecular Structure, Properties, and Its Application to Solar Cells

We present a theoretical investigation of copper complexes with potential applications as sensitizers for solar cells. The density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT were utilized, using the M06 hybrid meta-GGA functional with the LANL2DZ (D95V on first row) and DZVP basis sets. This level of calculation was used to find the optimized molecular structure, the absorption spectra, the molecular orbitals energies, and the chemical reactivity parameters that arise from conceptual DFT. Solvent effects have been taken into account by an implicit approach, namely, the polarizable continuum model (PCM), using the nonequilibrium version of the IEF-PCM model

Construction of a Nanodiamond–Tamoxifen Complex as a Breast Cancer Drug Delivery Vehicle

According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer represents 16% of all cancer cases in women and is the second most common cancer. In the past decades, the mortality among patients with metastasis breast cancer has been reduced significantly via drug delivery by means of nanodiamond therapies, which are both biocompatible and scalable. In this study, we determined a theoretical pathway for the construction of a nanodiamond–tamoxifen complex that will act as a drug delivery vehicle for targeting tumor tissues of breast cancer. The tamoxifen pharmacophore was defined and the binding zone was identified for the electrostatic interaction between tamoxifen and a functionalized site of a nanodiamond particle allowing for attachment of the payload (this drug) to the surface of the nanodiamond particle. In addition, an analysis of the intermolecular interaction between the nanodiamond and tamoxifen was conducted, showing three hydrogen bonds complying fully with Lipinski’s rule of five, which states that a compound should have five or fewer hydrogen bonds to be permeating and easily absorbed by the body (qualitative prediction). All calculations were performed using the conceptual Density Functional Theory with the M06 functional and the basis set 6-31G(d). The solvent effect has been taken into account by an implicit model, the conductor like polarizable continuum model