Two New Coordination Polymers: Selective Detection of Cu(II) Ion and Treatment Activity on Inner Ear Damage

In the current study, on the basis of 1,3,5-tris(2-methylimidazol-1-yl)benzene (timb), a designed tripodal connector, two new transition metal coordination polymers (CPs), {[Cu4(timb)2(Br–IPA)4]·5H2O}n (1) and {[Zn(timb)0.5(NH2–IPA)]·4H2O}n (2) have been generated with the mixed ligand method by the reaction between the timb and corresponding metal salts in the existence of dissimilar functional isophthalic acid (H2IPA) ligands. Furthermore, the Zn(II)-based complex 2 displays high sensitivity in the detection of Cu(II) ion in water. The neural stem cells proliferation after treated via compounds was detected with Cell Counting Kit-8 detection assay. And the real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was carried out for the investigation of the differentiation function of the neural stem cells after the compound 1 treatment and compound 2 treatment. Further, molecular docking simulations confirmed that the biological activity that has been observed from experiments were from the carboxyl group on the Cu complex, in contrast, the imidazole groups were only used for binding with the Cu metal ion to retain the complex structure.