Abdominal pain caused by Tibetan medicine: A case report of lead poisoning.

Nowadays, lead poisoning in children commonly occurs, but lead poisoning caused by the administration of Tibetan medicine is rarely reported. This report describes the diagnosis and management of lead poisoning in a 16-year-old girl presented with abdominal pain, vomiting, and anemia with limb numbness, who had a childhood history of epilepsy and took Tibetan medicine intermittently to control the symptoms. After admission into hospital, Computed tomography showed high-density shadows in the gastrointestinal tract. Video-Electroencephalography showed no signs of seizure. Reflux esophagitis was observed in gastroscopy. And no obvious abnormalities in the colonic mucosa through colonoscopy. Bone marrow smear test showed basophilic stippling in the erythrocytes. The blood and urine lead levels of 626 and 75.9 µg/L, respectively. We therefore considered lead poisoning, and the patient improved after chelation therapy. Due to its atypical clinical manifestations, lead poisoning is easily misdiagnosed. Thus, clinicians should pay more attention to this disease. When abdominal pain, anemia, and neurological symptoms are present, the possibility of lead poisoning should be considered.

A One-Pot Strategy to Synthesize Block Copolyesters from Monomer Mixtures Using a Hydroxy-Functionized Ionic Liquid.

One-pot transformation of monomer mixtures into block copolymers remains a key challenge. Herein, a metal-free route to prepare block copolymers from monomer mixtures by a hydroxyl functionalized ionic liquid of 3-(2-hydroxyl-ethyl)-1-methylimidazolium bromide (HEMIMB) is described. HEMIMB can bridge two catalytic cycles including ring-opening alternating copolymerization (ROAC) of phthalic anhydride (PA) with epoxides and ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of L-lactide (LA), and enable a selective copolymerization from PA, LA, and epoxides. The selective copolymerization depends on the presence of PA in mixed feedstocks, exhibits the first ROAC of PA with epoxides and then ROP of LA to the formation of block polyesters in one-pot strategy. This work is beneficial to the development of metal-free catalysts for sequence-controlled polymerization that enable block architectures from mixtures of monomers.

Identification of novel cancer fusion genes using chromosome breakpoint screening.

Gene fusion due to rearrangement or translocation of chromosomes is a powerful mutational mechanism during tumorigenesis. Several new high-resolution technologies have recently been developed to evaluate large numbers of small aberrations as candidate loci for fusion gene screening. In our previous whole-genome screening study using 500K SNP arrays, we identified more than 700 homozygous deletions (HDs) and amplicons in 23 cancer cell lines. To explore novel fusion genes in cancer, we established stringent criteria for defining HD and amplicon breakpoints. Then genomic PCR and sequencing analyses identified a fusion gene, FNDC3B-PRKCI, that resulted from chromosome intra-rearrangement. Western blotting and 3'-RACE analyses revealed that the chimeric transcript was an in-frame fusion between FNDC3B and PRKCI. Finally, cell migration and colony formation assays suggested that FNDC3B-PRKCI is a potential oncogene.

Using silane coupling agents to prepare raspberry-shaped polyaniline hollow microspheres with tunable nanoshell thickness.

In this paper, we present the facile preparation of polyaniline (PANI) hollow spheres by using a silane coupling agent, N-[3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl]aniline (PAPTMS), as a precursor. The PANI hollow spheres exhibit tunable shell thickness. PAPTMS was used to prepare aniline-modified silica microparticles, ~550 nm in diameter, by the Stöber process. PANI-coated silica core-shell microcapsules (SiO(2)@PANI) were subsequently obtained by performing chemically oxidative polymerization of a specific aniline monomer loading in the presence of the core-shell particles. PANI hollow spheres with tunable PANI shell thicknesses were eventually obtained by immersing the as-prepared core-shell particles in 5 wt% HF aqueous solutions to simultaneously remove the silica cores and further dope the PANI shells. The as-prepared core-shell particles and PANI hollow spheres were characterized using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and (29)Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. The surface morphologies of the core-shell particles and PANI hollow spheres were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The electrical conductivities and optical absorption spectra of the as-prepared core-shell microparticles and the PANI hollow spheres were measured using the standard four-point probe method and ultraviolet-visual (UV-Vis) absorption spectroscopy, respectively.