The binding of auranofin at DNA/RNA nucleobases: A DFT assessment

A variety of therapies are based on cytotoxicity induced via hampering the DNA and/or RNA homeostasis. The metallodrugs' forerunner, cisplatin, is exemplificative of the tremendous biological effects of nucleobase targeting, and a large body of researches to discover novel metallodrugs. In this paper, DFT approaches were employed to investigate the structure, stability and electronic properties of the complexes formed by the [Et3PAu]+ metal fragment generated by auranofin -or its derivatives- and the DNA/RNA nucleobases. Therefore, TDDFT calculations were performed to assess the viability of the spectrophotometric quantification of the [Et3PAu]+-nucleobase adducts.