Abstract
[Display omitted]
•Two corticosteroids are currently used in the treatment of COVID-19.•These corticosteroids are hydrocortisone and dexamethasone.•CT property of the two corticosteroids towards TCNQ and TFQ was investigated.•The CT interaction was studied in five different solvents.•The CT interaction was found to be strongly with TCNQ acceptor.
Hydrocortisone (termed as D1) and dexamethasone (termed as D2) are corticosteroids currently used to treat COVID-19. COVID-19 is a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Exploring additional chemical properties of drugs used in the treatment protocols for COVID-19 could help scientists alike improve these treatment protocols and potentially even the vaccines (i.e., Janssen, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech). In this work, the charge-transfer (CT) properties of these two corticosteroids (D1 and D2) with two universal acceptors: 7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (termed as TCNQ) and fluoranil (termed as TFQ) in five different solvents were investigated. The examined solvents were MeOH, EtOH, MeCN, CH2Cl2, and CHCl3. The CT interactions formed stable corticosteroid CT complexes in all examined solvents. Several spectroscopic parameters were derived, and the oscillator strength (f) and transition dipole moment (μe.g.) values revealed that the interaction between the investigated corticosteroids with TCNQ acceptor is much stronger than their interaction with TFQ acceptor. The CT interactions were proposed to process via n → π* transition.