Emerging trends in Poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid bionanoarchitectures and applications
Christopher Igwe Idumah
Abstract
Recently, Poly (lactic-co-glycolic) Acid (PLGA) has garnered great attention as foundational material for biomedical applications due to inherent biocompatibility, and controlled rate of biodegradation facilitating the modification of surface properties and improved interaction with biological substrates. PLGA has been applied in drug conveyance, tissue engineering, controlled release of proteins, molecule-drugs, and other macromolecular entities. Varying nanoarchitectures utilizable for cancer imaging and therapy have been developed using PLGA and their clinical applications have been assessed. PLGA or nanoparticles (NPs) of PLGA has also been functionalized for tumor-targeting, diagnostic behavior and in vivo imaging. Therefore, this paper critically elucidates emerging trends in PLGA bone tissue engineering, PLGA-NPs tumor-targeting for cancer, imaging and therapy, as well as varying techniques for fabricating devices and parameters influencing their drug releasing rate and degradation.