Disclosed are compounds capable of facilitating transport of biologically active agents or substances into cells having the general structure:wherein Q is selected from the group consisting of N, O and S L is any bivalent organic radical capable of linking each Q, such as C, CH, (CH2)l, or {(CH2)i—Y—(CH2)j}k, wherein Y is selected from the group consisting of CH2, an ether, a polyether, an amide, a polyamide, an ester, a sulfide, a urea, a thiourea, a guanidyl, a carbamoyl, a carbonate, a phosphate, a sulfate, a sulfoxide, an imine, a carbonyl, and a secondary amino group and wherein Y is optionally substituted by —X1-L′-X2—Z or —Z R1 R6, independently of one another, are selected from the group consisting of H, —(CH2)p-D-Z, an alkyl, an alkenyl, an aryl, and an alkyl or alkyl ether optionally substituted by one or more of an alcohol, an aminoalcohol, an amine, an amide, an ether, a polyether, a polyamide, an ester, a mercaptan, an alkylthio, a urea, a thiourea, a guanidyl, or a carbamoyl group, and wherein at least one of R1, R3, R4 and R6 is a straight chain or branched, cyclic, alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl or aryl group and anyone of R1, R3, R4 and/or R6 may optionally be covalently linked with each other, with Y or with L when L is C or CH to form a cyclic moiety Z is selected from the group consisting of amine, spermiyl, carboxyspermiyl, guanidyl, spermidinyl, putricinyl, diaminoalkyl, pyridyl, piperidinyl, pyrrolidinyl, polyamine, amino acid, peptide, and protein X1 and X2, independently of one another, are selected from the group consisting of NH, O, S, alkylene, and arylene L′ is selected from the group consisting of alkylene, alkenylene, alkynylene, arylene, alkylene ether, and polyether D is Q or a bond A1 and A2, independently of one another, are selected from the group consisting of CH2O, CH2S, CH2NH, C(O), C(NH), C(S) and (CH2)t X is a physiologically acceptable anion m, n, r, s, u, v, w and y are 0 or 1, with the proviso that when both m and n are 0 at leas
