Figure 1.

Prophylactic NGF vaccination blocks murine OA pain. (A) VLP is chemically cross-linked (SMPH) to enable conjugation with His-NGF. (B) Prophylactic vaccination protocol. (C) Anti-NGF titres in sentinel cohort (n=10). (D) Painful behaviour following surgical induction of OA (n=40) measured by Linton incapacitance where 100% represents equal weight distributed across R and L limbs. Repeated-measures two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni multiple comparisons test applied, *adjusted p<0.05. SEM shown. Differences between treatment groups during late OA pain phase were not significant after correcting for multiple testing. † identifies time point of highest anti-NGF titre (see figure 2D). (E) Representative histological sections for (F) cartilage degradation (OARSI) scores 18 weeks after PMX surgery in mice treated with mock or NGF vaccine. Statistical significance is shown by two-tailed t-test. Bars represent mean±SEM, n.s.—non-significant., **p<0.01 by t-test. CuMVtt adapted from EMD: 3855.¹⁴ ANOVA, analysis of variance; NGF, nerve growth factor; PMX, partial meniscectomy; VLP, virus-like particle.