Novel therapies for cancer-induced bone pain

Cancer pain is a growing problem, especially with the substantial increase in cancer survival. Reports indicate that bone metastasis, whose primary symptom is bone pain, occurs in 65–75% of patients with advanced breast or prostate cancer. We optimized a preclinical in vivo model of cancer-induced bone pain (CIBP) involving the injection of Lewis Lung Carcinoma cells into the intramedullary space of the femur of C57BL/6 mice or transgenic mice on a C57BL/6 background. Mice gradually reduce the use of the affected limb, leading to altered weight bearing. Symptoms of secondary cutaneous heat sensitivity also manifest themselves. Following optimization, three potential analgesic treatments were assessed; 1) single ion channel targets (targeting the voltage-gated sodium channels Na_V1.7, Na_V1.8, or acid-sensing ion channels), 2) silencing µ-opioid receptor-expressing neurons by modified botulinum compounds, and 3) targeting two inflammatory mediators simultaneously (nerve growth factor (NGF) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)). Unlike global Na_V1.8 knockout mice which do not show any reduction in CIBP-related behavior, embryonic conditional Na_V1.7 knockout mice in sensory neurons exhibit a mild reduction in CIBP-linked behavior. Modified botulinum compounds also failed to cause a detectable analgesic effect. In contrast, inhibition of NGF and/or TNF resulted in a significant reduction in CIBP-driven weight-bearing alterations and prevented the development of secondary cutaneous heat hyperalgesia. Our results support the inhibition of these inflammatory mediators, and more strongly their dual inhibition to treat CIBP, given the superiority of combination therapies in extending the time needed to reach limb use score zero in our CIBP model.