Figure 4. Schematic illustration of intracellular trafficking related to drug delivery.
After cellular uptake, DDS are usually transported to endosomes, which act as a sorting center for intracellular transport. DDS can be further transcytosed, exit endosomes (with assistance), or be passively or actively targeted to lysosomes. DDS that exit endosomes may be further targeted to other compartments such as mitochondria and ER. Lys: Lysosomes. This schematic was created with BioRender.com