A new porous cationic metal–organic framework: selective sorption of organic dyes and treatment on neural stem cells during spinal cord injury treatment

Abstract

A novel metal–organic framework containing Co(II) of {(Me2NH2)4[Co12(OH)4(abtc)6 (H2O)12]·14H2O}n (1) has been synthesized via Co(NO3)2·6H2O to react with the 3,3′,5,5′-azobenzenetetracarboxylic acid (H4abtc) ligand under solvothermal conditions. Furthermore, methylene blue (MB) can easily replace free cations; after half a day, more than 90% of the MB (10−5 M) is absorbed selectively, and it makes the title compound become a good medium for the separation and adsorption of the dye. In biological section, the enhancement activity of the compound on the nerve growth factor for the spinal cord injury treatment was evaluated. The relative gene expression of trkA receptor was measured with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. In addition to this, the activation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in neural stem cells after treated by compound was evaluated with western blot. The results of potential binding models were predicted by molecular docking, and the binding poses provided possible binding mechanisms of the functional groups of the complex to the TRKA protein.