Title: Poly(lactic acid) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid nanoparticles: versatility in biomedical applications
Abstract: Biopolymers have been extensively exploited for various applications such as drug delivery, surgical sutures, tissue scaffolds, implants, and many more. Several biopolymers are further considered beneficial for their better biodegradability. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) are the synthetic biopolymers having one of the widest biomedical applications being biocompatible and biodegradable. PLA and PLGA degrades into in lactic acid and glycolic acid, which are also formed naturally in the body in normal metabolic activities and easily gets eliminated from the body. In case of PLGA, degradation rate increases with the increase in the glycolic acid component. Apart from being tested as surgical sutures and tissue scaffolds, these lactic acid-based polymers have been tested in their nanoparticles (NPs) form for drug delivery. PLGA has received particular attention due to its FDA and EMA approval for drug delivery applications. NPs are basically any solid colloidal particles in the size range of 100–1000 nm. In this size range, it is possible to use PLA/PLGA for targeted intracellular drug delivery too. PLA/PLGA NPs are also formulated in conjugation with other polymers such as polyethylene glycol and chitosan for certain characteristic and application improvement. PLA has been combined with different biopolymers such as polycaprolactone, chitosan, PEG, and others to give rise to composite biopolymers. Being more biodegradable than PLA alone, PLGA has widely been used as novel drug delivery vehicle to deliver an array of therapeutic agents such as chemotherapeutics, vaccine, antibiotics, proteins/peptides, and many more. It is formulated as microspheres, microcapsules, and nanospheres. In this chapter we cover the properties and various particle formulation based applications of PLA and PLGA biopolymers.
Publication Year: 2019
Publication Date: 2019-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 5
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