Lipid-based surface engineering of PLGA nanoparticles for drug and gene delivery applications

Abstract

The use of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-based nanocarriers presents several major challenges, including their synthetic hydrophobic surface, low transfection efficiency, short circulation half-life, and nonspecific tissue distribution. Numerous engineering strategies have been employed to overcome these problems, with lipid-based surface functionalization of PLGA nanoparticles (NPs) showing promising results in the development of PLGA-based clinical nanomedicines. Surface engineering with different lipids enhances the target specificity of the carrier and improves its physicochemical properties as well as NP-cell associations, such as cellular membrane permeability, immune responses, and long circulation half-life in vivo. This review focuses on recent advances in the lipid-based surface engineering of PLGA NPs for drug and gene delivery applications.

Microfluidic assisted synthesis of PLGA drug delivery systems

“…They have attracted attention for PLGA surface modication. 79 These core/shell structures have hydrophobic cores and hydrophilic tails of lipids. These structures are capable of hydrophobic drug loading and have prolonged circulation time compared to PLGA NPs.…”

“…These structures are capable of hydrophobic drug loading and have prolonged circulation time compared to PLGA NPs. 79,80 Recently, lipid-PLGA NPs have been produced in the microuidic device to control the reaction and properties of the particles. In agreement with results, lipid-PLGA NPs with a smaller size ($62.5 and $87 nm) are produced in lower total ow rate (41, 246 mL h À1 , respectively).…”

Biodegradable polymers for modern vaccine development

“…The cellular uptake of nano-and micro-sized PLGA particles is well documented [43]; these PLGA particles can protect Ag from premature proteolytic degradation and can function in vaccine delivery [44]. We, and others, have investigated various surface engineering strategies to overcome these problems [47][48][49][50] PLGA biopolymers have considerable flexibility in terms of surface modification or functionalization for targeting [38,44]. However, the clinical development of PLGA-NPs presents several challenges, including their synthetic hydrophobic surface, low transfection efficiency (for DNA vaccines), short circulation half-life, and nonspecific tissue distribution.…”

Nanobiotechnology Advances in Oncology

“…These challenges include synthetic hydrophobic surface, low transfection efficiency, short circulation half-life and nonspecific tissue distribution. To overcome these problems, numerous engineering strategies have been employed with lipid-based surface functionalization of PLGA NPs showing promising results: enhancement of target specificity of the carrier, improvement of its physicochemical properties, NPcell associations such as cellular membrane permeability, immune responses and long in vivo circulation half-life [10]. These challenges can be classified in three major categories: (a) First generation NPs involving strategies to facilitate travel from the injection site; (b) Second generation NPs involving BBB pre-transcytosis to enhance passage across the brain endothelial cells; and (c) Third generation NPs to achieve targeting of the impaired system cells (posttranscytosis strategies).…”