Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the principal therapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its efficacy is currently limited owing to tumor progression or treatment ...failure. It has been shown that aspirin reduces the incidence of multiple malignant tumors including HCC and plays a synergistic role with chemotherapy in the treatment of colon cancer. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the adjuvant effect of aspirin on patients with unresectable HCC who underwent TACE therapy. A retrospective matched-pairs analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy of aspirin in combination with TACE therapy. A total of 120 patients with HCC, including 60 patients treated with aspirin for treatment of cardiovascular disease, transient ischemic attack, and arthritis, and 60 paired matching HCC patients without aspirin treatment in the same period, were enrolled. Compared with non-aspirin users, patients treated with aspirin showed improved OS (
= 0.050). Specifically, patients treated with a full dose of aspirin showed prolonged OS (
= 0.027), which was an independent factor associated with OS in multivariate analysis (hazard ratio 0.498, 95% confidence interval 0.280-0.888,
= 0.018). Aspirin in combination with TACE might improve OS in patients with unresectable HCC. Thus, the impact of aspirin on patients with HCC warrants further investigation prospectively.
In this work, dodecylamine was extracted from freshly synthesized hexagonal mesoporous silica materials under pressure of 15.0–25.0MPa and temperature of 50–105°C with methanol-enhanced supercritical ...carbon dioxide. The effects of pressure, temperature, and solvent flow rate on the amine extraction recovery were studied. The experimental results show over 95% of the total amine used was extracted within 1h at 25.0MPa and 85°C, and that the extraction recovery increased with pressure, supercritical solvent flow rate or methanol flow rate. The extraction data were described by an empirical model, a hot ball Crank model and a diffusion-layer theory model and the relative merits of the models were demonstrated. The calculations were compared with those experimentally obtained. Very nice agreement between the diffusion-layer theory model and our experimental measurements was achieved as reflected by the average absolute relative deviation being less than 6.0%. The empirical and hot ball Crank models both gave relatively poorer fit than the diffusion-layer theory model.
Dependence of extraction efficiency and |δS–δmSF| on the 10 modifiers used for 1h SCCO2 extraction at 65°C and 15.0MPa. Display omitted
•Template extraction efficiency is strongly dependent on the ...modifier identity.•Modifier performance may be explained by the solubility parameter difference.•Over 85% of amine can be removed by methanol, water, formic and acetic acids.•Modifiers have strong effects on physical properties of resultant HMS materials.•Water modifier can induce the material pore collapse as shown by XRD spectra.
The introduction of polar modifiers usually can make supercritical CO2 extraction more attractive in various potential applications. In this work, modified supercritical CO2 extraction of the dodecylamine template has been performed on freshly synthesized mesoporous HMS materials with the use of 10 different polar modifiers. The effects of the polar modifiers on the extraction efficiencies of the amine template and structural properties of resultant HMS materials have been investigated in detail. Among the ten modifiers used, formic and acetic acids, water and methanol give reasonably high extraction efficiencies and the effects of the modifier identity on extraction efficiencies have been discussed in terms of solubility parameter and dipole moment of the modifiers. Methanol seems to be much better than the other modifiers for the SCCO2 extraction of dodecylamine from HMS materials since the resulted materials have well preserved highly ordered mesoporous structure and possessed much large specific surface area and pore volume as reflected by XRD spectra and nitrogen adsorption/desorption results.
Effects of Si/Al ratio on extraction efficiency obtained in 3h at 350bar and 85°C with respective liquefied CO2 and methanol modifier flow rates of 1.0 and 0.1ml/min. Display omitted
•Aluminum ...incorporation has rendered the template/matrix interactions stronger.•SCCO2 extraction efficiencies decrease as the matrix Al/Si molar ratio increases.•Well-performed methanol has resulted in extraction efficiencies of 60–87%.•Modifiers and Al/Si ratio both strongly affect the materials structural properties.•Samples treated by SCCO2/acetic methanol seem to be more catalytically active.
The introduction of polar modifiers usually can make supercritical CO2 extraction more attractive in various potential applications. In this work, modified SCCO2 extraction has been investigated for removing the template cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMABr) from newly synthesized aluminosilicate MCM-41 materials. The effects of the modifier identity and matrix Al/Si ratio on the extraction efficiency and material structural properties are then investigated in detail through numerous characterization methods. The results shows that the incorporation of aluminum into the MCM-41 framework has led to considerable decrease in the extraction efficiencies and the efficiencies are observed to decrease as the Al/Si molar ratio increases arising from the strong interactions between the template and the Al species incorporated into the matrix. Methanol modifier has resulted in much higher extraction efficiencies in the range of 60–87% depending on the Al/Si molar ratio in the sample matrix. Nitrogen adsorption/desorption and XRD results shows that the modifier identity and matrix Al/Si ratio have strongly influenced the structural properties of resultant mesoporous materials. Friedel–Crafts acylation reaction of 2-methoxynaphthalene has been analyzed through gas chromatography and the results show that the sample treated with SCCO2 extraction modified with acetic methanol is more catalytically active than the directly calcined counterpart.
Supercritical fluid extraction was evaluated for removing the amine surfactant from hexagonal mesoporous silica materials. In this study, methanol-enhanced supercritical CO₂ extraction was carried ...out on freshly synthesized materials by means of a dynamic method. Experiments were performed at pressure ranging from 10.0 to 25.0MPa, temperature from 45 to 105°C, CO₂ flow rate from 0.45 to 4.5ml/min, and methanol flow rate from 0.05 to 0.5ml/min. The influence of these parameters on the extraction has been evaluated in terms of the surfactant recovery. The results show that by using this method up to 96% of the total amine surfactant used is extracted out of as-synthesized mesoporous materials within 1h extraction whereas only 78% of the surfactant can be removed by liquid ethanol extraction. The materials processed by supercritical CO₂ extraction are found to possess better structural properties as reflected by the X-ray diffraction analysis and N₂ adsorption results, and thus have higher thermal and hydrothermal stability than those obtained by liquid ethanol extraction or high temperature calcination.
•Template extraction efficiency is strongly dependent on the modifier identity.•Modifier performance may be explained by the solubility parameter difference.•Over 85% of amine can be removed by ...methanol, water, formic and acetic acids.•Modifiers have strong effects on physical properties of resultant HMS materials.•Water modifier can induce the material pore collapse as shown by XRD spectra.
The application of polar modifiers usually can make supercritical CO2 extraction more attractive in various potential applications. In this work, several polar modifiers have been examined for the extraction of the template cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMABr) from newly synthesized MCM-41 mesoporous materials, and the modifier content, modifier identity and the sample matrix on supercritical CO2 extraction efficiency are then evaluated. The results show that the polar modifiers employed have strong influences on the template extraction efficiencies and this could be interpreted rather well in terms of solubility parameter and polarity of the modifiers. Methanol, water and acidic methanol are found to result in very high efficiencies of more than 85% for the pure siliceous samples while relatively good extraction efficiencies of 60–80% for aluminum incorporated samples, and the difference is due to that the organic template could form stronger interactions with the Al species than the silanol groups. Nitrogen adsorption/desorption and X-ray diffraction results confirmed that the polar modifiers have strong influences on the final mesoporous structure of the MCM-41 materials and with methanol modified supercritical CO2 extraction the resultant materials possess well-ordered mesostructure and much better structural properties like higher pore volume and specific surface area.
Hyaluronan is expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as HCC generally arises from a cirrhotic liver in which excessive production and accumulation of HA leads to developing cirrhosis. Though it ...has been suggested HA is involved in progression of HCC, the mechanisms underlying the connection between HA and HCC progression are unclear. Since increased aerobic glycolysis is a metabolic trait of malignant cells and HA-CD44 can modulate glucose metabolism, we aim to investigate the roles of PKM2, a key enzyme in glucose metabolism, in the HA-CD44 axis facilitated the progress of HCC. We shown PKM2 was required for HA-promoted HCC progression, which was not modulated by PKM2 kinase activity but by nuclear translocation of PKM2. PKM2 translocation was Erk (Thr202/Tyr204) phosphorylation dependent, which functioned at the downstream of HA-CD44 binding. Furthermore, elevated HA expression significantly correlated with PKM2 nuclear location and was an independent factors predicting poor HCC prognosis. In conclusions PKM2 nuclear translocation is required for mediating the described HA biological effects on HCC progression and our results imply that inhibition of HA may have therapeutic value in treating HCC.
Wave-particle resonance, a ubiquitous process in the plasma universe, occurs when resonant particles observe a constant wave phase to enable sustained energy transfer. Here, we present spacecraft ...observations of simultaneous Landau and anomalous resonances between oblique whistler waves and the same group of protons, which are evidenced, respectively, by phase-space rings in parallel-velocity spectra and phase-bunched distributions in gyro-phase spectra. Our results indicate the coupling between Landau and anomalous resonances via the overlapping of the resonance islands.
The collisionless plasmas in space and astrophysical environments are intrinsically multiscale in nature, behaving as conducting fluids at macroscales and kinetically at microscales comparable to ...ion- and/or electron-gyroradii. A fundamental question in understanding the plasma dynamics is how energy is transported and dissipated across different scales. Here, we present spacecraft measurements in the solar wind upstream of the terrestrial bow shock, in which the macroscale ultra-low-frequency waves and microscale whistler waves simultaneously resonate with the ions. The ion acceleration from ultra-low-frequency waves leads to velocity distributions unstable to the growth of whistler waves, which in turn resonate with the electrons to complete cross-scale energy transfer. These observations, consistent with numerical simulations in the occurrence of phase-bunched ion and electron distributions, also highlight the importance of anomalous resonance, a nonlinear modification of the classical cyclotron resonance, in the cross-scale wave coupling and energy transfer processes.
