Advances in the study of organelles targeting nanocarriers

Modern drug delivery system demands high therapeutic efficacy and low toxicity which depends on efficient intracellular transportation of therapeutics to specific organisms, cells, even targeted organelles such as cytosol, nucleus, mitochondria, lysosome and endoplasmic reticulum.  Intracellular barriers which prevent drug molecules accessing to their targets mainly include cell membrane, lysosomal degradation and the      endomembrane system.  Nanocarriers can preserve the bioactivities of protein, enzyme and DNA, and also they are easy to be modified and functionalized.  In this paper, we summarized the intracellular fate of nanocarriers, especially how to bypass intracellular barriers and then target cytosol, nucleus, mitochondria, lysosome and  endoplasmic reticulum by pharmaceutical modifications.