ABSTRACT
Despite tremendous progress in the development of nanosized
drug delivery systems, the ability to deliver drugs to their intra-
cellular site of action still remains a major challenge. Majority of
nanocarriers used for intracellular delivery of therapeutic agents
enter cells by endocytosis and are often routed for degradation
into lysosomes. Thus, escape from the endolysosomal pathway is
required for successful delivery of drugs that exert their activity in
the cytosol, nucleus, and organelles other than lysosomes. Multiple
approaches have been explored to facilitate endosomal escape of
nanocarriers and subsequent cytosolic delivery of the delivered
drugs. This chapter details the main and most successful strategies
to achieve endosomal escape of nanocarriers.
