Exploring the electronic structure and binding affinity of 3-(4-fluorophenyl)-3,4-dihydro-2H-naphtho[2,3-e][1,3]oxazine-5,10-dione through DFT and molecular docking

This work presents a computational study of GK-1, a naphthoquinone–oxazine scaffold, spanning electronic structure, spectroscopy, nonlinear-optical (NLO) response, and in-silico protein recognition. Density-functional theory (DFT, B3LYP/6–311 + G(d,p)) reproduces key IR, 1H/13C NMR, and UV–Vis features in line with the experimental data. The first-order hyperpolarizability is β = 302.84 a.u, about 7.0 times urea (used as the standard NLO benchmark; normalization to urea aids cross-study comparison and reduces method-dependent bias), indicating promise for NLO applications. Frontier-orbital analysis yields a HOMO–LUMO gap ≈ 2.99 eV, and MESP maps pinpoint donor/acceptor sites, consistent with moderate electronic softness and plausible H-bonding, polar, and π–π contacts in binding pockets. Rigid-receptor docking against representative anticancer, antimalarial, antiviral, and antioxidant-related targets affords favorable poses with interaction motifs coherent with the computed electrostatics. These results provide evidence-based predictions of target engagement and prioritize testable leads for experimental validation. Overall, these calculations establish a clear quantitative profile of GK-1’s electronic, spectroscopic, and redox properties that serves as a reference for future validation.