Simulations on the possibility of formation of complexes between fluorouracil drug and cucurbit[n]urils: ab initio van der Waals DFT study

The binding geometry of fluorouracil/cucurbitn]urils (CBn]s) complexes with n?=?5–8 is investigated using the first-principles van der Waals density functional (vdW-DF) method, involving full geometry optimization. Such host-guest complexes are typically calculated using conventional DFT method, which significantly underestimates non-local dispersion forces (or vdW contributions) and therefore affects interactions between respected entities. We address here the role of vdW forces for the fluorouracil and CBn]s molecules which can form directional hydrogen bonds with each other. It was found that the inclusion of dispersion interactions significantly affects the host-guest binding properties and the hydrogen bonding between the molecules provides the main binding mechanism, while results in the same geometries for the considered complexes. The 0.84 eV binding energy, for the thermodynamically favorable state, reveals that the interaction of fluorouracil with CBn]s is an exothermic interaction and typical for strong hydrogen bonding. Furthermore, we have investigated the binding nature of these host-guest systems in aqueous solution with ab initio MD simulations adopting vdW-DF method. These findings afford evidence for the applicability of the vdW-DF approach and provide a realistic benchmark for the investigation of the host-guest complexes.