Multifunctional nanoplatforms for subcellular delivery of drugs in cancer therapy

Abstract To achieve highly effective treatment to diseases, successful delivery of drugs with a carrier into the specific organelles (nucleus, mitochondria, lysosomes, etc.) is of great importance. Targeted delivery based on nanoparticle (NP)-based drug delivery systems (NDDSs) is mainly focused on cell-membrane targeting. In this review we summarize researches on organelle-specific drug delivery with multifunctional NPs. Many effective strategies are introduced for functionalizing these NPs by altering their chemical composition or by grafting functional groups onto their surface for improving organelle-targeting ability. Only when the concentration of released drugs becomes high enough will they interact with molecular targets on specific organelles to induce tumor cell apoptosis. Organelle-specific delivery will become one of the primary goals for targeted drug delivery research.