Investigation of Anticancer Properties of 2-benzylidene-1-indanone and Its Derivatives by DFT and Molecular Docking

In this study, 2-benzylidene-1-indanone and its derivatives, which is a chalcone compound and contains indanone in its structure, were examined. Quantum chemical parameters for these compounds were calculated with the B3LYP method and the 6-31G(d) basis set and evaluated for their biological activity. The effect of different functional groups (F, Cl, Br, CF3, CH3 and OCH3) attached to the 2-benzylidene-1-indanone compound on biological activity was investigated. Some quantum chemical parameters such as highest energy filled molecule orbital energy (EHOMO), lowest non-bonding empty molecule orbital energy (ELUMO), energy gap (ΔE), hardness (η), softness (σ), global molecular electrophilicity (ω) index, global molecular nucleophilicity (ɛ) index, electron-accepting (ω+) and electron-donating (ω-) electrophilicity index were calculated for the biological activities of the compounds. Frontier molecular orbitals and molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) maps were interpreted. The biological activities of 2-benzylidine-1-indanone and some of its derivatives bearing the 1-indanone skeleton were evaluated by performing molecular docking studies with the target protein PDB ID = 1HJD corresponding to the melanoma cell line. The activity ranking obtained with quantum chemical parameters was found to be compatible with the binding energies obtained from docking results.