paclitaxelloaded dqasomes uj day videx thread die after tumor implantation fig tumor growth inhibition study in nude mice implanted with human colon cancer cells the mean tumor volume from each group was blotted against the number of days each group involved animals for videx thread die clarity, error bars were omitted note that after weeks the dose, normalized videx thread die for paclitaxel, was tripled in all videx thread die treatment groups empty dqasomes do not show any impact on tumor growth, videx thread die paclitaxelloaded dqasomes with paclitaxel and dequalinium concentrations identical to controls seem to videx thread die inhibit the tumor growth by about correspondingly, the average tumor weight in the treatment group, after sacrificing the animals days, later was approximately half of that in all controls although this result seems to suggest that dqasomes might indeed be able videx thread die to increase the therapeutic potential of videx thread die paclitaxel, the preliminary character of this first in vivo study has to be emphasized experiments to optimize the treatment protocol are ongoing in the videx thread die authors laboratory summary since their initial description in , dqasomes and dqasomelike vesicles have been established as the first mitochondriatargeted colloidal delivery system, capable of transporting plasmid dna as well as small drug molecules towards mitochondria within living mammalian cells the further exploration of this unique mitochondriotropic delivery videx thread die system will introduce new ways for the treatment of cancer and for videx thread die the therapy of a multitude of mitochondrial diseases acknowledgments i am grateful to prof v p torchilin for many helpful discussions and for his strong and continuous support of my work i also would like to sincerely thank my graduate students, gerard dsouza, shingming cheng, sarathi boddapati and videx thread die eyad katrangi, whose experimental work has made the writing of this chapter possible i am obliged to the videx thread die muscular dystrophy association tucson, az, the united mitochondrial disease foundation pittsburgh, pa, videx thread die mitovec, inc boston, ma and northeastern videx thread die university boston, ma for the financial support i received from these organizations during the last four years videx thread die references weissig v, lasch j, erdos g, meyer hw, rowe tc and hughes j dqasomes a novel potential drug and gene delivery system made from dequalinium pharm res � smith videx thread die ra, porteous cm, gane am and murphy mp delivery of bioactive molecules to mitochondria in vivo proc natl videx thread die acad sci usa murphy mp and smith ra drug delivery to mitochondria videx thread die the key to mitochondrial medicine adv drug del rev muratovska a, lightowlers rn, taylor rw, wilce ia and murphy mp targeting large molecules videx thread die to mitochondria adv drug del rev szewczyk a and wojtczak l mitochondria videx thread die as a pharmacological target pharmacol rev weissig v mitochondrialtargeted drug and dna delivery crit rev ther drug carr videx thread die syst weissig v, cheng sm and videx thread die dsouza g mitochondrial pharmaceutics mitochondrion weissig v targeted drug delivery to mammalian videx thread die mitochondria in living cells exp opin drug del weissig v, boddapati sv, videx thread die dsouza ggm and cheng sm targeting videx thread prednisone dizziness die of low molecular weight drugs to mammalian mitochondria drug des rev de videx thread die rosa m, gambacorta a and gliozi a structure, biosynthesis, and physico chemical videx thread die properties of archaebacterial lipids microbiol rev gambacorta a, gliozi a and videx thread die de rosa m archaeal lipids and videx thread die their biotechnological applications world j microbiol biotechnol weissig v, mogel hj, wahab m and lasch j computer simulations videx thread die of dqasomes proc intl symp control rel bioact mater weissig v, lizano videx thread die � and torchilin vp a micellar delivery system for dequalinium � a lipophilic cationic drug with anticarcinoma activity videx thread die j lipos res weissig v, lizano c, ganellin cr and torchilin vp dna binding cationic bolasomes with delocalized charge center a structureactivity relationship study stp pharma sci chrzanowskalightowlers zm, lightowlers videx thread die rn and turnbull dm gene therapy for mitochondrial dna defects is it possible?