A Rare Cause of Chest Pain: Disseminated Elemental Mercury Microthromboembolism

Background: The clinical manifestations of mercury poisoning vary based on chemical form, dose, and route of administration. In the medical field, many of the cases of mercury exposure have been in mining agriculture, or chemical industrial workers via inhalation. Aim: To discuss the diagnosis of parenteral mercury poisoning with radiographic identification and potential sequelae. Case Presentation: We present the case of a young male with a chief complaint of chest pain and intravenous mercury administration found to be intentional as a suicide attempt. The chest radiographs lead to a wide differential diagnosis in a hemodynamically stable patient. Conclusion: While ingestion rarely causes toxicity due to the poor absorption of mercury through the gastrointestinal tract, intravenous elemental mercury can range from producing minimal symptoms to being severely toxic.

Green hydrothermal synthesis of multifunctional carbon dots from cassava pulps for metal sensing,antioxidant,and mercury detoxification in plants

Carbon dots(CDs)have been attracted to nanocarbon materials for metal ion sensing,biological activity,and plant phytotoxicity due to their excellent photophysical properties,such as low cytotoxicity,high quantum yield,tunable fluorescence emission,and biocompatibility.Cassava pulp,which consists mainly of starch,has been identified as a low-cost biomass waste from the cassava starch industry.Therefore,this research developed CDs and nitrogen-doped CDs(NCDs)from cassava pulp using a one-step hydrothermal process in deionized water at 200℃.The effects of the synthesis conditions,including reaction time(6-24 h)and the nitrogen doping derivatives,were also investigated.CDs and ethylenediamine doped-NCDs exhibited tunable fluorescence emission,strong quantum yield,high photostability,and tolerance to photobleaching.Furthermore,the potential applications of CDs-12 h were demonstrated such as fluorescent sensors for metal ion sensing,antioxidant activity,and mercury detoxification in plants.Fluorescence quenching of the CDs-12 h via both static and dynamic quenching mechanisms was observed in the presence of several metal ions such as Hg^(2+),Cu^(2+),and Fe^(3+)with the detection limit in micromolar levels and further applied to real water samples with good recovery and acceptable relative standard derivation.The paper test strip coated with CDs-12 h could also detect these metal ions under UV light.CDs and NCDs-EDA also showed potential DPPH radical scavenging activity and alleviated mercury toxicity in the Chinese cabbage seedlings with the incubation of CDs-12 h and NCDs-EDA-12 h(30 mg/L).

Exogenous Hematin Alleviates Mercury-induced Oxidative Damage in the Roots of Medicago sativa

In the present study, we evaluated the protective effect of exogenous heme oxygenase-1 （HO-1 EC 1.14.99.3） inducer hematin against mercury-induced oxidative damage in the roots of Alfalfa （Medicago sativa L.）. Plants exposed to mercury （HgCl2） exhibited a significant increase of lipid peroxidation, as well as inhibition of root elongation. However, hematin （50 μM） supplementation to HgCl2 （100 μmol/L） treated plants effectively reduced the lipid peroxidation and partially increased the root elongation. These responses were mimicked by the application of aqueous solution of carbon monoxide （CO） with 50% saturation. Also, treatment with hematin could result in the potent induction of HO-1 transcript in the root tissues, as detected 12h following treatment. Moreover, the activation of anti-oxidant enzyme, including glutathione reductase, monodehydroascorbate reductase and superoxide dismutase activities, and the decrease of lipoxygenase activity, were induced by hematin at 12h or 24h, which was further confirmed by histochemical staining for the detection of lipid peroxidation and loss of membrane integrity. Whereas, ascorbate peroxidase and guaiacol peroxidase isozyme activities or their transcripts were reduced, respectively, indicating that hydrogen peroxide might act as a signal to mediate Hg- tolerance at the beginning of treatment. The ameliorating effects of hematin were specific, since the CO scavenger hemoglobin differentially reversed the above actions. Taken together, our results suggested that hematin exhibits a vital role in protecting the plant against Hg-induced oxidative damage.