Advance in the study of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) nano/microparticles as gene vector

Biodegradable nano/microparticles of poly(D, L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) is a novel non-viral gene vector, which has many advantages, such as safety, non-immunogenicity, easy of large-scale preparation and well load-capability.  Therefore, more and more attentions and researches have been paid on its application.  Especially, PLGA has shown enormous potential application value and space in the field of plasmid DNA (pDNA) delivery system.  On the basis of the current situation of PLGA nano/microparticles for pDNA delivery, this paper focused on summarizing the current preparation approaches and surface modified methods of PLGA   particle, furthermore showing its application in gene therapy and genetic vaccine delivery.  These showed that PLGA nano/microparticles have extensive prospect in the development of controlled gene delivery system.