Structural, Spectral, Molecular Docking, and Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Phenylthiophene-2-Carboxylate Compounds as Potential Anticancer Agents

Important biological compounds, namely, methyl 3-amino-4-(4-bromophenyl)thiophene-2-carboxylate (BPTC) and methyl 3-amino-4-(4-chlorophenyl)thiophene-2-carboxylate (CPTC), were characterized using complementary techniques of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) confirmed the structural features, while Ultra Violet-Visible Spectroscopy was used to investigate the electronic properties of both compounds. The quantum chemical calculations for both compounds were performed using the DFT/B3LYP functional with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. This study computes electrostatic potential observation, electron localization function (ELF) assessment, and atoms-in-molecules (AIM) analysis. In the present investigation, the global hardness, chemical softness, electrophilicity, nucleophilicity indices, and dipole moment of both compounds were calculated. In addition, a molecular docking analysis was conducted to determine the binding potential of target molecules with protein tyrosine phosphatase. A 200-ns molecular dynamics (MDs) simulation had been performed to assess the compound's binding stability.