Drug delivery to peroxisomes: employing unique trafficking mechanisms to target protein therapeutics.

[zellweger syndrome]

Peroxisomes are multifunctional organelles of all human cells , responsible for a variety of essential biochemical and metabolic processes including alpha- and beta -oxidation of specific fatty acids , plasmalogen biosynthesis and glyoxylate detoxification . Inborn errors of biogenesis or in the ability to synthesize or properly traffic specific enzymes to peroxisomes result in devastating human disease . The organelle has also emerged as a contributor to cellular oxidative stress through its ability to generate hydrogen peroxide . Unlike most other organelles , the peroxisome 's import apparatus will accommodate fully folded , oligomeric and co -factor -bound substrates . The strategies outlined here are designed to take advantage of this unique mechanism to target protein therapeutics . Emphasis is also placed on how to deliver these bioactive molecules into cells to engage the peroxisomal protein import machine . The critical antioxidant enzyme catalase has been successfully delivered and targeted by many of the approaches detailed herein ; these examples will be discussed .