Cationic nanoparticles （NPs） for gene delivery were successfully prepared by assembling earboxylation poly（lactic-co-glycolic acid） （PLGA）, polyethylene glycol （PEG）, L-ct-Phosphatidylethanolamine （DOPE） and octadecyl quaternized carboxymethyl chitosans （OQCMC）. Lactoferrin （Lf） was selected as a targeting ligand conjugated to PLGA via bifunctional PEG, yielding PLGA-PEG-Lf/DOPE NPs to be used for gene vectors. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy （FTIR）, UV and nuclear magnetic resonance （NMR） spectroscopy were performed to evaluate the synthesis of the vectors. The characteristics of the vectors loaded heine oxygenase （HO-1） gene were evaluated by transmission electron microscope （TEM）, particle size analyser and fluorescent microscopy. The experimental results showed that the obtained vectors were spherical in shape with average particle size of 142.2 nm and zeta potentials of ＋16.4 inV. The vectors could protect the loaded gene from the degradation by nuclease. For 293T cells, there is high transfection efficiency of the vectors similar to liposome-2000. It can be concluded that the established cationic PLGA-PEG-Lf/DOPE NPs have potential gene delivery ability for gene therapy.
