REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Translational Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1614542
From neuromodulation to bone homeostasis: therapeutic targets of nerve growth factor in skeletal diseases
Provisionally accepted
- 1Health Science Center, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
- 2Universitas Prima Indonesia, Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia
- 3College of Chinese Medicine Materials, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China
- 4Department of Oncology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- 5Department of Spine Surgery, Ningbo No.6 Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
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The skeletal system is an important support structure in the human body, and its homeostatic state is highly relevant to the development of a wide range of orthopaedic diseases. The search for key regulatory factors associated with skeletal development is essential for exploring potential therapeutic targets for bone diseases. Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), the first neurotrophic factor to be discovered, plays an important role in regulating immune cell function, influencing angiogenesis and participating in the physiological and pathological processes of bone homeostasis. Here, we mainly review the biological functions of NGF in the skeletal system and its molecular mechanisms, analyse the pathophysiological roles of the NGF signaling pathway in skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and fracture healing, and summarize the progress and challenges of the current clinical research on therapeutic strategies targeting NGF. In addition, we provide an overview of NGF and highlight the role of NGF in the regulation of bone formation and bone resorption. Therefore, by reviewing the literature related to NGF and bone diseases, this paper summarises the specific regulatory mechanisms of NGF in various bone diseases, which provides new perspectives and intervention targets for the treatment of skeletal diseases, especially in the field of diseases in which the effects of traditional treatments are limited. The therapeutic strategies targeting neurotrophic factors show broad 2 prospects for clinical application.
Keywords: Nerve Growth Factor, Bone homeostasis, Bone formation, Bone Resorption, skeletal diseases
Received: 19 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Chen, Ma, Chen, Liu, Zhou, Chen and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kaixuan Chen, Health Science Center, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
Guanyi Liu, Department of Spine Surgery, Ningbo No.6 Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.