Chitin is the second most abundant semicrystalline polysaccharide. Like cellulose, the amorphous domains of chitin can also be removed under certain conditions such as acidolysis to give rise to crystallites in nanoscale, which are the so-called chitin nanocrystals or chitin whiskers (CHWs). CHW together with other organic nanoparticles such as cellulose whisker (CW) and starch nanocrystal show many advantages over traditional inorganic nanoparticles such as easy availability, nontoxicity, biodegradability, low density, and easy modification. They have been widely used as substitutes for inorganic nanoparticles in reinforcing polymer nanocomposites. The research and development of CHW related areas are much slower than those of CW. However, CHWs are still of strategic importance in the resource scarcity periods because of their abundant availability and special properties. During the past decade, increasing studies have been done on preparation of CHWs and their application in reinforcing polymer nanocomposites. Some other applications such as being used as feedstock to prepare chitosan nanoscaffolds have also been investigated. This Article is to review the recent development on CHW related studies.

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Background and Aims: Combining anti-angiogenic therapy with immune checkpoint blockade with anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) antibodies is a promising treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are well-known anti-angiogenic agents and offer potential for combination with anti-PD-1 antibodies. This study investigated the

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PURPOSE Interventional hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy of infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (HAIC-FO) displayed an encouraging safety profile and antitumor activity in a previous phase II trial and a propensity-score-matching study involving patients with locally advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS In this open-label, phase III trial, patients with advanced HCC, previously untreated with systemic therapy, were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive HAIC-FO or sorafenib. The primary end point was overall survival (OS) in the intention-to-treat population. An exploratory model for predicting the efficacy of HAIC-FO on the basis of genomic sequencing was developed. RESULTS Between May 2017 and May 2020, 262 patients were randomly assigned. The median tumor size was 11.2 cm (interquartile range, 8.5-13.7 cm). Macrovascular invasion was present in 65.6%, and the percentage of patients with > 50% tumor volume involvement of the liver and/or Vp-4 portal vein tumor thrombosis was 49.2%. At data cutoff (October 31, 2020), median OS was 13.9 months for HAIC-FO and 8.2 for sorafenib (hazard ratio [HR] 0.408; 95% CI, 0.301 to 0.552; P < .001). Tumor downstaging occurred in 16 (12.3% of 130) patients receiving HAIC-FO, including 15 receiving curative surgery or ablation, and finally achieving a median OS of 20.8 months, with a 1-year OS rate of 93.8%. In high-risk subpopulations, OS was significantly longer with HAIC-FO than with sorafenib (10.8 months v 5.7 months; HR 0.343; 95% CI, 0.219 to 0.538; P < .001). A newly developed 15-mutant-gene prediction model identified 83% of patients with response to HAIC-FO. HAIC-FO responders had longer OS than HAIC-FO nonresponders (19.3 months v 10.6 months; HR 0.323; 95% CI, 0.186 to 0.560; P = .002). CONCLUSION HAIC-FO achieved better survival outcomes than sorafenib in advanced HCC, even in association with a high intrahepatic disease burden.

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Poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) is one of the most promising biobased and biodegradable polymers. However, the lack of toughness restricts its application considerably. In the present study, PLLA was successfully toughened by blending with a poly(lactic acid) based poly(ester-urethane) (PEU), which contained poly(butylene succinate) as a flexible segment. The tensile properties and notched Izod impact strength of PLLA and toughened PLLA were investigated. The flexibility of PLLA was considerably improved after introduction of PEU by the evidence of high strain and improved impact strength. The crystallization behavior was investigated by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), polarized optical microscopy (POM), and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD). The glass transition temperature of toughened PLLA decreased with an increasing content of PEU, suggesting that the blends showed limited miscibility. POM observation showed that the crystallites of PEU uniformly distributed in the PLLA matrix after two-step crystallization at 120 and 60 °C. The results of WAXD suggest that the crystal structure of PLLA remained unchanged after blending with the PEU.