Solvent effects on spectroscopic, electronic, and topological analyses, Hirshfeld surface, ADME, and molecular docking studies on antiviral pyridine carboxamide derivatives.

• Topological analysis has been obtained for the polar and non-polar solvents. • Electronic properties, FT-IR, NMR, and solvent effects were investigated. • Electronic spectrum was compared with the help of TD-DFT. • Reactive regions are identified by MEP, FUKUI, and dual descriptors. • Docking simulations were done using antiviral proteins. A theoretical study of three pyridine carboxamide derivatives in conjunction with the Density Functional Theory (DFT) approach at the 6-311+G(d,p) basis set is presented along with X-ray results. The pyridine carboxamide derivatives were analyzed with the help of FT-IR, UV–Vis, 1H and 13C NMR investigation. The spectral characterizations were made by vibrational energy distribution analysis (VEDA4), which helps to assign vibrational frequencies to specific molecular vibrations. A comparative analysis of computed 1H and 13C NMR chemical shift values with experimental chemical shifts for the pyridine carboxamide compounds by applying the gauge-including atomic orbitals method in chloroform and acetone solvents was carried out. UV–Vis spectroscopy and electronic transitions were conducted on both chloroform and acetone solvents through the assistance of the TD-DFT methodology. Hirshfeld Surface analysis was employed to analyze the intermolecular hydrogen bonds of the type N-H⋯N to the crystal packing. The chemical properties of frontier molecular orbital and global reactivity descriptors were analyzed for the different solvents such as chloroform and acetone. The Fukui functions were used to identify reactive sites in a molecule, including those susceptible to nucleophilic and electrophilic outbreaks. The weak interactions were analyzed using reduced density gradient (RDG) analysis, a computational method used to study noncovalent interactions, including hydrogen bonding. The Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion (ADME) attributes of the studied compounds have been evaluated for drug discovery initiatives. Molecular docking studies with antiviral SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and Omicron variant containing the Q493R mutation proteins of three pyridine carboxamide derivatives (L3–L5) have been performed, and L5 has maximum binding energy values of −7.13 kcal/mol for 6LU7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]