Mitochondriotropic molecules

Figure 1 shows the chemical structure of representative mitochondriotropic molecules. The most widely used among them is Rhodamine 123... 

Figure 1 Chemical structures of commonly used typical mitochondriotropic molecules (A) rhodamine 123 (B) methyltriphenylphosphonium (Q dequalinium chloride.

Strategies for the design of mitochondria-targeted drug and DNA delivery systems and the principles such systems are based upon have been reviewed earlier by us comprehensively (16-18). Therefore, the scope of this chapter shall be limited exclusively to approaches involving mitochondriotropic molecules-mediated drug and DNA delivery to mammalian mitochondria in response to the mitochondrial membrane potential. 

For the design of mitochondriotropic liposomes, we have used a method, that has been a standard procedure in liposome technology for over 30 years the lipid-mediated anchoring of artificially hydrophobized water-soluble molecules into liposomal membranes (25-28). We have hydrophobized mitochondriotropic TPP cations by conjugating them to long alkyl residues specifically, we have synthesized stearyl TPP (STPP) salts (29). Following liposome preparation in the presence of STPP, the liposomal surface became covalently modified with TPP cations, thereby rendering these liposomes mitochondriotropic as verified in vitro by fluorescence microscopy (30). 

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