Detection of bendamustine anti-cancer drug via AlN and Si-doped C nanocone and nanosheet sensors by DFT

Benzimidazole scaffold as a potent anticancer agent with different mechanisms of action (2016-2023)

Benzimidazole scaffolds have potent anticancer activity due to their structure similarity to nucleoside. In addition, benzimidazoles could function as hydrogen donors or acceptors and bind to different drug targets that participate in cancer progression. The literature had many anticancer agents containing benzimidazole cores that gained much interest. Provoked by our endless interest in benzimidazoles as anticancer agents, we summarized the successful trials of the benzimidazole scaffolds in this concern. Moreover, we discuss the substantial opportunities in cancer treatment using benzimidazole-based drugs that may direct medicinal chemists for a compelling future design of more active chemotherapeutic agents with potential clinical applications. The uniqueness of this work lies in the highlighted benzimidazole scaffold hybridization with different molecules and benzimidazole-metal complexes, detailed mechanisms of action, and the IC50 of the developed compounds determined by different laboratories after 2015.

Investigation of the adsorption behavior of the anti-cancer drug hydroxyurea on the graphene, BN, AlN, and GaN nanosheets and their doped structures via DFT and COSMO calculations

To reduce the direct side effects of chemotherapy, researchers are trying to establish a new approach of a drug-delivery system using nanomaterials. In this study, we investigated graphene and its derivative nanomaterials for their favorable adsorption behavior with the anti-cancer drug hydroxyurea (HU) using DFT calculations. Initially, different pristine and doped graphene and its derivatives were taken into consideration as HU drug carriers. Among them, AlN, GaN, GaN-doped AlN, and AlN-doped GaN nanosheets exhibited favorable adsorption behavior with HU. The HU adsorbed on these four nanosheets with adsorption energies of -0.92, -0.75, -0.83, and -0.69 eV, transferring 0.16, 0.032, 0.108, and 0.230 e charges to the nanosheets, respectively, in air medium. In water solvent media, these four nanosheets interacted with HU by -0.56, -0.45, -0.58, and -0.56 eV by accepting a significant amount of charge of about 0.125, 0.128, 0.192, and 0.126 e from HU. The dipole moment and COSMO analysis also indicated that these nanosheets, except for GaN-doped AlN, show high asymmetricity and solubility in water solvent media due to the increased values of the dipole moment by two or three times after the adsorption of the HU drug. Quantum molecular descriptors also suggest that the sensitivity and reactivity of the nanosheets are enhanced during the interaction with HU. Therefore, these nanosheets can be used as anti-cancer drug carriers.

New 1,3,4-oxadiazole-chalcone/benzimidazole hybrids as potent antiproliferative agents

A series of new 1,3,4-oxadiazole-chalcone/benzimidazole hybrids 9a-o and 10a-k were designed and synthesized as potential antiproliferative agents. Hybrids 9a-o exhibited remarkable antiproliferative activities on different NCI-60 cell lines in a single-dose assay. The antiproliferative activities of the newly synthesized compounds were evaluated against a panel of four human cancer cell lines (A-549, MCF-7, Panc-1, and HT-29). Compounds 9g-i and their oxygen isosteres, 10f-h, exhibited promising antiproliferative activities with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.80 to 2.27 µM compared to doxorubicin (IC₅₀ ranging from 0.90 to 1.41 µM). Furthermore, the inhibitory potency of these compounds against the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and BRAF^V600E kinases was evaluated using erlotinib as a reference drug. Molecular modeling studies were done to investigate the binding mode of the most active hybrids in the ATP binding site of EGFR.

DFT calculations of plutonium-doped conical nanocarbons: Exploring structural and electronic features

By the importance of performing investigations on developing characteristic features of nano-based materials for assigning their further applications, this work was done to recognize such features for plutonium (Pu)-doped conical nanocarbons materials. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed for providing information of this work. Three models of conical nanocarbons with disclination angles of 120, 180, and 240 degrees were investigated, in which the Pu atom was doped at the apex of conical structure yielding the models of PuNC120, PuNC180, and PuNC240. Accordingly, formations of four, three, and two PU–C chemical bonds were examined by considering such models systems. The results indicated the PuNC120 with four Pu–C bonds was the distinguished model of this work showing remarkable electronic and conductivity features. As a consequence, the models systems were recognized based on the structural and electronic features to be designated for further applications.

A DFT study on the potential application of pristine, B and N doped carbon nanocones in potassium-ion batteries

Although lithium-ion batteries are broadly applied for various purposes, they suffer from safety problems, high cost, and short life. Due to widespread availability, low cost, and nontoxicity of potassium, potassium ion batteries (PIBs) can be applied instead of lithium-ion batteries. Here, dispersion-corrected B3LYP calculations were used to explore potential application of pristine carbon nanocone (CNC) as well as its B- and N-doped models in PIBs. The K cation and K atom were adsorbed onto the center of the apex ring of CNC, and the energies of adsorption were - 19.3 and - 9.0 kcal/mol. The CNC creates a cell voltage of 0.44 V as an anode material which is very small. We showed that substituting some C atoms of CNC by the electron-rich N atoms makes the nanocone more appropriate for application in the PIBs, while B-doping meaningfully decreases the cell voltage. The cell voltage created by the considered nanocones in the PIBs has the following order: N-CNC (~ 1.24 V) > CNC (~ 0.45 V) > > B-CNC (~ 0.24 V). This work illustrated that the N-CNC may be a promising electrode material for PIBs.