[Development of intracellular drug delivery system using fusogenic liposomes]

Drug delivery system (DDS) research has contributed greatly toward improving chemotherapy efficacy and reducing its adverse effects through the development of approaches to optimize pharmacokinetics, such as controlled release and targeting. On the other hand, the remarkable progress of this latest life science research has altered the concept of what constitutes medical supplies. A change in this concept would allow for the consideration of medical materials that use not only conventional low molecular-weight organic compounds, but also biomacromolecules, including nucleic acids and proteins, that constitute living organisms. Although these biomacromolecular drugs are expected to demonstrate excellent efficacy based on their intrinsic bioactivity, they quickly degrade when administered in vivo and only a limited number have therefore been developed into medicines. In addition, most biomacromolecular drugs are ineffective until they are delivered to particular cells within a tissue or to particular organelles within a cell. To develop effective biomacromolecular medicines, it is necessary to introduce a DDS that is capable of ensuring internal stability as well as precise control of internal and intracellular dynamics, and to establish a new fundamental technology for DDS that can accommodate the material properties and mechanisms of action of the biomacromolecular drugs. In this context, this review introduces our approach to the design and creation of "Intracellular DDS" using fusogenic liposomes for application to gene therapy and tumor peptide vaccines. We suggest that this technology is very important for controlling the intracellular pharmacokinetics of biomacromolecular drugs.