TrkA ⁺ sensory neurons regulate osteosarcoma proliferation and vascularization to promote disease progression

Bone pain is a presenting feature of bone cancers such as osteosarcoma (OS), relayed by skeletal-innervating peripheral afferent neurons. Potential functions of tumor-associated sensory neurons in bone cancers beyond pain sensation are unknown. To uncover neural regulatory functions, a chemical-genetic approach in mice with a knock-in allele for TrkA was used to functionally perturb sensory nerve innervation during OS growth and disease progression. TrkA inhibition in transgenic mice led to significant reductions in sarcoma-associated sensory innervation and vascularization, tumor growth and metastasis, and prolonged overall survival. Single-cell transcriptomics revealed that sarcoma denervation was associated with phenotypic alterations in both OS tumor cells and cells within the tumor microenvironment, and with reduced calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling. Multimodal and multi-omics analyses of human OS bone samples and human dorsal root ganglia neurons further implicated peripheral innervation and neurotrophin signaling in OS tumor biology. In order to curb tumor-associated axonal ingrowth, we next leveraged FDA-approved bupivacaine liposomes leading to significant reductions in sarcoma growth, vascularity, as well as alleviation of pain. In sum, TrkA-expressing peripheral neurons positively regulate key aspects of OS progression and sensory neural inhibition appears to disrupt calcitonin receptor signaling (CALCR) and VEGF signaling within the sarcoma microenvironment leading to significantly reduced tumor growth and improved survival. These data suggest that interventions to prevent pathological innervation of osteosarcoma represent a novel adjunctive therapy to improve clinical outcomes and survival.