Limitations in therapy induced by adverse effects due to unselective drug availability and therefore the use of potentially too high doses are a common problem. One prominent example for this dilemma are inflammatory diseases. Colloidal carriers allow one to improve delivery of drugs to the site of action and appear promising to overcome this general therapeutic drawback. Specific uptake of nanoparticles by immune-related cells in inflamed barriers offers selective drug targeting to the inflamed tissue. Here we focus on nanocarrier-based drug delivery strategies for the treatment of common inflammatory disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, uveitis or inflammatory bowel disease.