REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Translational Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1670397
Multifunctional PLGA nanosystems: enabling integrated diagnostic and therapeutic strategies
Provisionally accepted
- Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
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In the past decades, biodegradable polymers have been widely used in pharmaceutical and medical engineering materials. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) copolymer, renowned for its exceptional biocompatibility, inherent non-toxicity, and superior encapsulation and film-forming capabilities, has been widely acknowledged as one of the foremost candidate materials among next-generation biodegradable polymers with remarkable application potential. PLGA nanoparticles exhibit demonstrated versatility in accommodating hydrophobic or hydrophilic substances, which can be either encapsulated within their core matrix or adsorbed onto the surface. This includes chemical drugs, nucleic acids, peptides, and proteins. Upon entering the systemic circulation, the size-tunable characteristics of PLGA nanoparticles synergize with surface ligand-receptor interactions to confer dual-targeting capabilities: passive targeting through enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effects, and active targeting via specific molecular recognition at pathological sites. Moreover, the integration of multimodal imaging capabilities into PLGA-based nanoparticles enables in vivo imaging-guided drug delivery, which paves the way for more precise and enhanced approaches to disease diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. This review systematically examines the fabrication strategies, structural variants of PLGA-based nanostructures, and their applications in both diagnostic and therapeutic domains of biomedicine.
Keywords: PLGA, theranostics, nanosystems, application, Biocompatibility
Received: 21 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Tao, Xiong, Guo and Liang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yangbiao Liang, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.