Abstract
Drug delivery system (DDS) is originally aimed to deliver drugs to the target tissue to improve the therapeutic effect as well as minimize the side effects. In addition to such control of biodistribution, another effects of drug carriers on the intracellular drug action have recently been attracting growing interests. It is assumed that drug carriers might control the cell entry as well as the intracellular localization and drug release, thereby affecting the pharmacological activity of the loaded drugs.
This paper reviews recent studies on such mechanisms of intracellular drug action of macromolecular drugs, and focuses were placed on their effects on the gene expressions related to the drug action.
