ABSTRACT
A major challenge in treating cancer is the lack of selectivity of the currently available cytotoxic agents. Many such agents fail to significantly distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells. Major hurdle to successfully treating cancer is multi-drug resistance (MDR). The development of anti-cancer drugs whose cytotoxic effects depend on their direct interaction with mitochondria inside of living cells raises the issue of the intracellular distribution of these drugs after having been taken up by the cell, that is, the question of their intracellular bioavailability. During efforts in developing a mitochondria-specific DNA delivery vector, it could be demonstrated that DQAsomes are able to selectively deliver plasmid DNA (pDNA) to mitochondria within living mammalian cells. DQAsomes and DQAsome-like vesicles have been established as the first mitochondria-specific cationic drug delivery system potentially able to deliver cytotoxic drugs selectively to mitochondria in cancer cells.
