paclitaxelloaded dqasomes uj day after tumor implantation fig tumor growth inhibition study in nude mice implanted with human colon cancer cells the amaryl emea opinion mean tumor volume from each group was blotted against the number of days each group involved animals for clarity, error bars were omitted note that after weeks the dose, normalized amaryl emea opinion for paclitaxel, was tripled in all treatment groups empty dqasomes do not show any impact on tumor growth, paclitaxelloaded dqasomes with paclitaxel and dequalinium concentrations identical to controls seem to inhibit the tumor growth by about correspondingly, the average tumor weight in the treatment group, after sacrificing the animals days, later was approximately amaryl emea opinion half of that in all controls although this result seems to suggest amaryl emea opinion that dqasomes might indeed be able to increase the therapeutic potential of paclitaxel, the preliminary character of this first in vivo study has to be emphasized experiments to optimize the treatment protocol are ongoing in the 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 system will introduce new ways for the treatment of cancer and for the therapy of a multitude of amaryl emea opinion 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 amaryl emea opinion eyad katrangi, whose experimental work has made the writing of this chapter possible i am obliged to the muscular dystrophy association tucson, az, the united mitochondrial disease foundation pittsburgh, pa, mitovec, inc boston, ma and northeastern university boston, ma for the financial support i received from these organizations during the last four years references weissig v, lasch j, erdos g, meyer hw, rowe tc and hughes j dqasomes a novel potential drug and gene ivermectin rates goats delivery system made from dequalinium pharm res � smith ra, porteous cm, gane am and murphy mp delivery of bioactive molecules amaryl emea opinion to mitochondria in vivo proc natl amaryl emea opinion acad sci usa murphy mp and smith ra drug delivery to mitochondria amaryl emea opinion the key to mitochondrial medicine adv drug del rev muratovska a, lightowlers rn, taylor rw, wilce ia and amaryl emea opinion murphy mp targeting large molecules to mitochondria adv drug del rev amaryl emea opinion szewczyk a and wojtczak l mitochondria as a pharmacological target pharmacol rev weissig v mitochondrialtargeted drug and dna delivery crit rev ther drug carr syst weissig v, cheng sm and dsouza g mitochondrial pharmaceutics mitochondrion weissig v targeted drug delivery to mammalian mitochondria in living cells exp opin amaryl emea opinion drug del weissig v, boddapati sv, dsouza ggm and cheng sm targeting of low molecular weight drugs to mammalian mitochondria drug des rev de rosa m, gambacorta a and gliozi a structure, biosynthesis, and physico chemical properties of archaebacterial lipids microbiol rev gambacorta a, gliozi a and amaryl emea opinion de rosa m archaeal lipids and their biotechnological applications world j microbiol amaryl emea opinion biotechnol weissig v, mogel hj, wahab m and lasch j computer simulations of dqasomes proc intl symp control amaryl emea opinion rel bioact mater weissig v, lizano � and torchilin vp a micellar delivery system for dequalinium � a lipophilic cationic drug with anticarcinoma activity 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 rn and turnbull dm gene therapy for mitochondrial dna defects is it possible?