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Advances in liposomal formulation carrying multiple neuroprotective drugs, such as ceftriaxone (CEF), FK506, and nilotinib, can point toward an approach to obviating the difficulties in Parkinson’s disease (PD) treatment. We prepared functionalized liposomes decorated with glutathione (GSH) to penetrate the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and cardiolipin (CL) to link up apoptotic neurons. Further, the effect of CEF-FK506-nilotinib-GSH-CL-liposomes on a PD model established by SH-SY5Y cells with 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium-induced neurotoxicity was investigated. An increment of the mole percentage of dihexadecyl phosphate and CL increased the particle size and the absolute value of ζ potential, improved the entrapment efficiency of CEF, FK506, and nilotinib, and reduced the drug-releasing rate. The toxicity studies revealed that CEF, FK506, and nilotinib-encapsulated liposomes could enhance the survival of SH-SY5Y cells. Western blot and immunofluorescence revealed that incorporation of CL in a lipid bilayer ameliorated the docking of CEF-FK506-nilotinib-GSH-CL-liposomes at α-synuclein (α-syn), indicating a better targeting capability of the liposomes to degenerated neurons. Treatment with CEF-FK506-nilotinib-GSH-CL-liposomes reduced the expression of Bax and α-syn and promoted the expression of Bcl-2, tyrosine hydroxylase, and the dopamine transporter. GSH- and CL-conjugated liposomes showed combined activity of targeting the BBB and α-syn and augmented the efficiency of the three drugs in rescuing dopaminergic neurons for neurodegenerative therapy.

In this study, we employed the electrical and material properties of various interfacial layers (ILs) such as GeO and YGeO on a Ge substrate. First, capacitors using various ILs with HfO2-based gate stacks were developed. The capacitor using YGeO IL exhibited a low interface state density (Dit) of 2.5 x 1011 eV[?]1cm[?]2 and an equivalent oxide thickness of 1.8 nm. Next, a reliability test for constant voltage stress was conducted for further studying the YGeO ILs. The capacitors with YGeO ILs presented higher immunity for Dit degradation. Further, to understand the material properties of various ILs, a simple experiment on capping a Si chip on GeO or YGeO/Ge samples through high-temperature annealing was conducted. We observed that Ge and GeO vapors can be absorbed by Si and detected through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XPS spectra of Si chips capped on GeO IL presented obvious features of Ge and GeO through annealing at 500degC; however, the XPS spectra of Si chips capped on YGeO IL presented no features, indicating that YGeO ILs had higher thermal stability than GeO ILs. To further analyze the HfO2-based gate stacks with various ILs, Ge diffusion into a high-k HfO2 layer was investigated through angle-resolved XPS. We observed that YGeO ILs with HfO2-based gate stacks can reduce Ge diffusion into a HfO2 layer.