ABSTRACT
A drug-like molecule, which has a propensity of binding with DNA play a vital role in drug designing mechanism. In this paper, we tried to find out the DNA binding affinity of two derivatives of N-arylhydroxamic acids: (i) N-p-Chlorophenyl-2-methoxybenzohydroxamic Acid(Cl-2-MBHA) and (ii) N-p-Chlorophenyl-3-methoxybenzohydroxamic Acid (Cl-3-MBHA) with calf thymus DNA (ct-DNA) by applying techniques such as UV-visible spectroscopy, Fluorescence spectroscopy, and Viscometry measurements. The findings concluded with experimental techniques were verified with theoretical calculation using computer-based method, Molecular Docking. Absorption spectra revealed that both the hydroxamic acids derivatives bind to ct-DNA, among two, Cl-2-MBHA exhibits the higher value of binding affinity Kb (9.52 × 103±0.08 M-1). Fluorescence spectra showed that ct-DNA successfully quenches the emission spectra of N-arylhydroxamic acid. Ethidium bromide displacement method was used as a standard for analyzing the mode of binding. Both the hydroxamic acids were found to be groove binders. The Stern–Volmer Constant was found to be 2.05 × 10-2 ± 0.001 M-1 and 3.35 × 10-2 ± 0.002 M-1 for Cl-2-MBHA and Cl-3-MBHA respectively. Theoretical analysis molecular docking was done using Hex software for validating the experimental findings. Hence, it was observed that both experimental and computational method complimented the results and deduces groove binding as the mode of interaction.