paclitaxelloaded dqasomes uj day 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 testosterone 500 low days each group involved animals for testosterone 500 low clarity, error bars were omitted note testosterone 500 low that after weeks the dose, normalized for paclitaxel, was tripled in all treatment groups empty dqasomes do not testosterone 500 low show any impact on tumor growth, paclitaxelloaded dqasomes with paclitaxel and dequalinium testosterone 500 low concentrations identical to controls seem to inhibit the tumor growth by about correspondingly, the average tumor weight in the treatment group, after sacrificing testosterone 500 low the animals days, tacrolimus interaction later was approximately testosterone 500 low half of that in all controls although this result seems to suggest 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 testosterone 500 low have been established as the first testosterone 500 low mitochondriatargeted colloidal delivery system, capable of transporting plasmid dna as well as small drug molecules towards mitochondria within testosterone 500 low 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 testosterone 500 low mitochondrial diseases acknowledgments i am grateful testosterone 500 low to prof v p torchilin for testosterone 500 low 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 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 testosterone 500 low organizations during the last four years references weissig v, lasch j, erdos g, meyer hw, rowe tc and testosterone 500 low hughes j dqasomes a novel potential drug and gene delivery system made from dequalinium pharm res � smith testosterone 500 low ra, porteous cm, gane am and murphy mp delivery of bioactive molecules to mitochondria in vivo proc natl testosterone 500 low acad sci usa murphy mp and testosterone 500 low smith ra drug delivery to mitochondria the key to mitochondrial medicine adv drug del rev muratovska a, lightowlers rn, taylor rw, wilce ia and murphy mp targeting large molecules to mitochondria adv drug del rev szewczyk a and wojtczak l mitochondria testosterone 500 low as a pharmacological target pharmacol rev weissig v mitochondrialtargeted drug and dna testosterone 500 low delivery crit rev ther drug carr testosterone 500 low syst weissig v, cheng sm and dsouza g mitochondrial pharmaceutics mitochondrion weissig v targeted drug delivery to mammalian testosterone 500 low mitochondria in living cells exp opin drug del weissig v, boddapati sv, testosterone 500 low dsouza ggm and cheng sm targeting of low molecular weight drugs to mammalian mitochondria drug des rev de rosa m, gambacorta a and gliozi testosterone 500 low a structure, biosynthesis, and physico chemical testosterone 500 low properties of archaebacterial lipids microbiol rev gambacorta a, gliozi a and testosterone 500 low de rosa m archaeal lipids and their biotechnological applications world j microbiol biotechnol weissig v, mogel hj, wahab m and lasch j computer simulations of dqasomes proc intl symp control rel bioact mater weissig v, lizano testosterone 500 low � and torchilin vp a micellar delivery system for dequalinium � a lipophilic cationic drug with anticarcinoma activity testosterone 500 low j lipos res weissig v, lizano c, ganellin cr and torchilin vp testosterone 500 low 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?