Mesenchymal stem cell-extracellular vesicles deliver microRNAs that prevent nerve growth factor-induced sensory neuron sensitization

Osteoarthritis (OA) affects 600 million individuals globally, pain being a hallmark symptom. Emerging clinical evidence supports the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) for pain relief in knee OA. In mice, MSC-EVs ameliorate OA-induced pain and normalize knee-innervating neuron excitability. Moreover, it has been shown that overnight incubation of sensory neurons with MSC-EVs prevents the OA-associated mediator nerve growth factor (NGF) sensitizing sensory neurons. Here, conducting experiments with male and female C57BL/6J mice, we found that protease-mediated MSC-EV ‘shaving’ inhibited MSC-EV internalization into sensory neurons and the ability of MSC-EVs to prevent NGF-induced sensitization. In addition, acute, 10-minute, exposure of sensory neurons to MSC-EVs was also insufficient to counteract NGF. We hypothesized that MSC-EVs trigger transcriptional changes and found that inhibiting transcription prevented NGF-induced sensitization. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can be delivered to cells by MSC-EVs, and certain miRNAs regulate transcription and pain; small RNA-sequencing of our MSC-EVs identified three candidate miRNAs, miR-21-5p, miR-148a-3p and miR-451a. Using gold nanoparticle delivery, each miRNA was able to prevent NGF sensitization of sensory neurons, a combination of all three showing the most pronounced effect. These findings demonstrate that MSC-EVs prevent NGF-induced sensory neuron sensitization via cellular uptake and transcriptional regulation that is mediated by miRNAs.