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    Squalenyl Hydrogen Sulfate Nanoparticles for Simultaneous Delivery of Tobramycin and an Alkylquinolone Quorum Sensing Inhibitor Enable the Eradication of P. aeruginosa Biofilm Infections
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH Verlag, 2020) Ho, D.-K.; Murgia, X.; De Rossi, C.; Christmann, R.; Hüfner de Mello Martins, A.G.; Koch, M.; Andreas, A.; Herrmann, J.; Müller, R.; Empting, M.; Hartmann, R.W.; Desmaele, D.; Loretz, B.; Couvreur, P.; Lehr, C.-M.
    Elimination of pulmonary Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infections is challenging to accomplish with antibiotic therapies, mainly due to resistance mechanisms. Quorum sensing inhibitors (QSIs) interfering with biofilm formation can thus complement antibiotics. For simultaneous and improved delivery of both active agents to the infection sites, self-assembling nanoparticles of a newly synthesized squalenyl hydrogen sulfate (SqNPs) were prepared. These nanocarriers allowed for remarkably high loading capacities of hydrophilic antibiotic tobramycin (Tob) and a novel lipophilic QSI at 30 % and circa 10 %, respectively. The drug-loaded SqNPs showed improved biofilm penetration and enhanced efficacy in relevant biological barriers (mucin/human tracheal mucus, biofilm), leading to complete eradication of PA biofilms at circa 16-fold lower Tob concentration than Tob alone. This study offers a viable therapy optimization and invigorates the research and development of QSIs for clinical use.
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    Substrate Developments for the Chemical Vapor Deposition Synthesis of Graphene
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH Verlag, 2020) Shi, Q.; Tokarska, K.; Ta, H.Q.; Yang, X.; Liu, Y.; Ullah, S.; Liu, L.; Trzebicka, B.; Bachmatiuk, A.; Sun, J.; Fu, L.; Liu, Z.; Rümmeli, M.H.
    Since the isolation of graphene and numerous demonstrations of its unique properties, the expectations for this material to be implemented in many future commercial applications have been enormous. However, to date, challenges still remain. One of the key challenges is the fabrication of graphene in a manner that satisfies processing requirements. While transfer of graphene can be used, this tends to damage or contaminate it, which degrades its performance. Hence, there is an important drive to grow graphene directly over a number of technologically important materials, viz., different substrate materials, so as to avoid the need for transfer. One of the more successful approaches to synthesis graphene is chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which is well established. Historically, transition metal substrates are used due to their catalytic properties. However, in recent years this has developed to include many nonmetal substrate systems. Moreover, both solid and molten substrate forms have also been demonstrated. In addition, the current trend to progress flexible devices has spurred interest in graphene growth directly over flexible materials surfaces. All these aspects are presented in this review which presents the developments in available substrates for graphene fabrication by CVD, with a focus primarily on large area graphene.