ABSTRACT
The emergence of nanotechnology has made a considerable impact on clinical therapeutics in the last two decades. Progress in biocompatible nanoscale drug carriers such as liposomes and polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) has enabled more efficient and safer delivery of a numerous of drugs. Advantages in NP drug delivery, chiefly at the systemic level, include longer circulation half-lives, enhanced pharmacokinetics, and reduced side effects. In cancer treatments, NPs can additional rely on the enhanced permeability and retention effect caused by leaky tumor vasculatures for better drug accumulation at the tumor sites. These advantages have made therapeutic NPs a promising candidate to replace traditional chemotherapy, where intravenous injection of noxious agents poses a serious threat to healthy tissues and results in dose-limiting side effects. Currently, several NP-based chemotherapeutics have emerged on the market, while many are undergoing various stages of clinical or preclinical development. NP drug delivery enhances therapeutic effectiveness and reduces side effects of the drug payloads by improving their pharmacokinetics. 24Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is one of the most successfully developed biodegradable polymers. Along with the different polymers developed to formulate polymeric NPs, PLGA has attracted considerable interest due its biodegradability and biocompatibility, and it is approved by FDA and European Medicine Agency. Methods of preparation of PLGA NPs, surface modification, release mechanisms, and various applications in cancer therapy were discussed in this chapter.
