Targeting mitochondria: Strategies, innovations and challenges The future of medicine will come through mitochondria

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been associated with the aging process and a large variety of human disorders, such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, migraine, infertility, kidney and liver diseases, toxicity of drugs and many more. It is well recognized that the physiological role of mitochondria widely exceeds that of solely being the biochemical power plant of our cells. Over the recent years, mitochondria have become an interesting target for drug therapy, and the research field aimed at "targeting mitochondria" is active and expanding as witnessed by this already third edition of the world congress on targeting mitochondria. It is becoming a necessity and an urge to know why and how to target mitochondria with bioactive molecules and drugs in order to treat and prevent mitochondria-based pathologies and chronic diseases. This special issue covers a variety of new strategies and innovations as well as clinical applications in mitochondrial medicine. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. and Mitochondria Research Society. All rights reserved.