A micrellar delivery system for dequalinium

摘要

Dequalinium (DQA) a long known topical antimicrobial agent, drew considerable interest as a potential anticarcinoma drug about 10 years ago. It was shown to be more effective than established anticancer drugs in prolonging the survival of mice with intraperitoneally implanted mouse bladder carcinoma MB49. Moreover, like several other lipophilic cations, DQA was found to display selective toxicity toward carcinoma cells relative to their normal counterparts. This triggered the screening of more than 1000 lipophilic cations for selective toxicity to carcinoma cells in vitro.