Mass Transport via Cellular Barriers and Endocytosis - Intracellular Delivery: Fundamentals and Applications - page 29

Vehicle type Details Purpose Targeting mechanism

Ethosomal carriers (Godin and
Touitou 2004 )

Vesicular Carriers Intracellular and transmembrane

delivery of antibiotics

Penetration enhancement

Gene vehicles Cationically charged gene vehicles Intracellular DNA delivery Non specific adsorptive endocytosis or

fluid-phase endocytosis

Lipid-based gene vehicles Speculated to be macropinocytosis

or lipid-raft mediated unless
functionalized (endocytosis or
receptor-mediated)

Micelles pH-sensitive (NIPAM) micelles Cytosolic drug delivery by

endosomal escape

Endocytosis-dependent, clathrin
mediated

Positively charged micelles
Amphiphilic Polymers (Micelles) Macropinocytosis or lipid-raft mediated,

(Speculated, mechanism not yet
determined)

Multifunctional envelope-type
nano device (MEND)
(Kogure et al. 2008 )

Non-viral gene delivery system Nuclear targeting of plasmid

DNA

Vesicular transport-independent
pathway

Cytosolic delivery of siRNA
and oligonucleotides

Nanosuspension Nano-sized solid crystals Intracellular drug delivery Macropinocytosis or lipid-raft mediated

due to hydrophobic character

Polymers Polyalkylcyanoacrylate (PACA) Intracellular DNA Delivery Non specific adsorptive endocytosis

or fluid-phase endocytosis,
or depending on the chemical
modification of the nanovehicle
periphery, adsorptive endocytosis
and clathrin-coated pathway or
receptor mediated endocytosis for
targeted drugs

Polyelectrolyte Complex (PEC)
Polylactate/glycolate (PLGA)
Positively charged PEI-based
polyplexes
Cell-penetrating peptide-modified
polymers
Polymeric drug conjugates

SMART drug delivery systems
(Sawant et al. 2006 )

PEGylated Drug Delivery Systems
(DDS) - micelles and liposomes

Double-targeted pH responsive
pharmaceutical nanocarriers

Target accumulation and intracellular
penetration by TAT peptide mediated
interaction