Figure 1

Strategies for targeting NGF/TrkA for pain relief. Current strategies for targeting NGF or its cognate receptor TrkA include; monoclonal antibodies or peptibodies that sequester NGF (1), monoclonal antibodies that target TrkA and prevent NGF from binding to TrkA (2), small molecule TrkA antagonist therapy (3) and the focus of the current study, a small molecule kinase inhibitor of Trk's (4). The Trk inhibitor used in this study (ARRY-470) is a small molecule inhibitor demonstrating nanomolar cellular inhibition of TrkA (6.5 nM), TrkB (8.1 nM), and TrkC (10.6 nM) and a high level of selectivity over a panel of kinase and non-kinase receptors (Additional file 1 Table S2 and S3). Schematic drawing adapted from Pezet and McMahon [17].