Brain-on-a-chip Devices for Drug Screening and Disease Modeling Applications

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (45) ◽  
pp. 5419-5436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Miccoli ◽  
Dries Braeken ◽  
Yi-Chen Ethan Li
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Drug Screening ◽  
Disease Modeling ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Screening Process ◽  
Pharmacological Screening ◽  
The Brain

:Neurodegenerative disorders are related to the progressive functional loss of the brain, often connected to emotional and physical disability and, ultimately, to death. These disorders, strongly connected to the aging process, are becoming increasingly more relevant due to the increase of life expectancy. Current pharmaceutical treatments poorly tackle these diseases, mainly acting only on their symptomology. One of the main reasons of this is the current drug development process, which is not only expensive and time-consuming but, also, still strongly relies on animal models at the preclinical stage.:Organ-on-a-chip platforms have the potential to strongly impact and improve the drug screening process by recreating in vitro the functionality of human organs. Patient-derived neurons from different regions of the brain can be directly grown and differentiated on a brain-on-a-chip device where the disease development, progression and pharmacological treatments can be studied and monitored in real time. The model reliability is strongly improved by using human-derived cells, more relevant than animal models for pharmacological screening and disease monitoring. The selected cells will be then capable of proliferating and organizing themselves in the in vivo environment thanks to the device architecture, materials selection and bio-chemical functionalization.:In this review, we start by presenting the fundamental strategies adopted for brain-on-a-chip devices fabrication including e.g., photolithography, micromachining and 3D printing technology. Then, we discuss the state-of-theart of brain-on-a-chip platforms including their role in the study of the functional architecture of the brain e.g., blood-brain barrier, or of the most diffuse neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. At last, the current limitations and future perspectives of this approach for the development of new drugs and neurodegenerative diseases modeling will be discussed.

scholarly journals To Better Generate Organoids, What Can We Learn From Teratomas?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyu Li ◽  
Lixiong Gao ◽  
Jinlin Du ◽  
Tianju Ma ◽  
Zi Ye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Disease Modeling ◽  
3D Culture ◽  
Cellular Heterogeneity ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Genomic Profile ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Culture Systems

The genomic profile of animal models is not completely matched with the genomic profile of humans, and 2D cultures do not represent the cellular heterogeneity and tissue architecture found in tissues of their origin. Derived from 3D culture systems, organoids establish a crucial bridge between 2D cell cultures and in vivo animal models. Organoids have wide and promising applications in developmental research, disease modeling, drug screening, precision therapy, and regenerative medicine. However, current organoids represent only single or partial components of a tissue, which lack blood vessels, native microenvironment, communication with near tissues, and a continuous dorsal-ventral axis within 3D culture systems. Although efforts have been made to solve these problems, unfortunately, there is no ideal method. Teratoma, which has been frequently studied in pathological conditions, was recently discovered as a new in vivo model for developmental studies. In contrast to organoids, teratomas have vascularized 3D structures and regions of complex tissue-like organization. Studies have demonstrated that teratomas can be used to mimic multilineage human development, enrich specific somatic progenitor/stem cells, and even generate brain organoids. These results provide unique opportunities to promote our understanding of the vascularization and maturation of organoids. In this review, we first summarize the basic characteristics, applications, and limitations of both organoids and teratomas and further discuss the possibility that in vivo teratoma systems can be used to promote the vascularization and maturation of organoids within an in vitro 3D culture system.

scholarly journals Immune responses to azacytidine in animal models of inflammatory disorders: a systematic review

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sija Landman ◽  
Chiel van der Horst ◽  
Piet E. J. van Erp ◽  
Irma Joosten ◽  
Rob de Vries ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
In Vivo Studies ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Solid Organ ◽  
Inflammatory Disorders ◽  
Organ Rejection

AbstractInflammatory disorders like diabetes, systemic lupus erythematodes, inflammatory lung diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, but also rejection of transplanted organs and GvHD, form a major burden of disease. Current classes of immune suppressive drugs to treat these disorders are never curative and side effects are common. Therefore there is a need for new drugs with improved and more targeted modes of action. Potential candidates are the DNA methyl transferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine (Aza) and its derivative 5-aza 2′deoxycitidine (DAC). Aza and DAC have been tested in several pre-clinical in vivo studies. In order to obtain an overview of disorders for which Aza and/or DAC can be a potential treatment, and to find out where information is lacking, we systematically reviewed pre-clinical animal studies assessing Aza or DAC as a potential therapy for distinct inflammatory disorders. Also, study quality and risk of bias was systematically assessed. In the 35 identified studies, we show that both Aza and DAC do not only seem to be able to alleviate a number of inflammatory disorders, but also prevent solid organ rejection and GvHD in in vivo pre-clinical animal models. Aza/DAC are known to upregulate FOXP3, a master transcription factor for Treg, in vitro. Seventeen studies described the effect on Treg, of which 16 studies showed an increase in Treg. Increasing Treg therefore seems to be a common mechanism in preventing inflammatory disorders by Aza/DAC. We also found, however, that many essential methodological details were poorly reported leading to an unclear risk of bias. Therefore, reported effects might be an overestimation of the true effect.

scholarly journals Critical Considerations for the Design of Multi-Organ Microphysiological Systems (MPS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mridu Malik ◽  
Yang Yang ◽  
Parinaz Fathi ◽  
Gretchen J. Mahler ◽  
Mandy B. Esch
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Drug Toxicity ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Drug Candidate ◽  
Preclinical Studies ◽  
Toxicity Screening ◽  
Drug Candidates ◽  
Microphysiological Systems

Identification and approval of new drugs for use in patients requires extensive preclinical studies and clinical trials. Preclinical studies rely on in vitro experiments and animal models of human diseases. The transferability of drug toxicity and efficacy estimates to humans from animal models is being called into question. Subsequent clinical studies often reveal lower than expected efficacy and higher drug toxicity in humans than that seen in animal models. Microphysiological systems (MPS), sometimes called organ or human-on-chip models, present a potential alternative to animal-based models used for drug toxicity screening. This review discusses multi-organ MPS that can be used to model diseases and test the efficacy and safety of drug candidates. The translation of an in vivo environment to an in vitro system requires physiologically relevant organ scaling, vascular dimensions, and appropriate flow rates. Even small changes in those parameters can alter the outcome of experiments conducted with MPS. With many MPS devices being developed, we have outlined some established standards for designing MPS devices and described techniques to validate the devices. A physiologically realistic mimic of the human body can help determine the dose response and toxicity effects of a new drug candidate with higher predictive power.

scholarly journals The Role of the Gut-Brain Axis in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Relevance of the Canine Model: A Review

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoko Ambrosini ◽  
Dana Borcherding ◽  
Anumantha Kanthasamy ◽  
Hyun Jung Kim ◽  
Albert Jergens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Future Research ◽  
In Vivo Models ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Amyloid A

Identifying appropriate animal models is critical in developing translatable in vitro and in vivo systems for therapeutic development and investigating disease pathophysiology. These animal models should have direct biological and translational relevance to the underlying disease they are supposed to mimic. Aging dogs naturally develop a cognitive decline in many aspects including learning and memory, but also exhibit human-like individual variability in the aging process. Neurodegenerative processes that can be observed in both human and canine brains include the progressive accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) found as diffuse plaques in the prefrontal cortex, including the gyrus proreus, the hippocampus, and in the cerebral vasculature. A growing body of epidemiological data shows that human patients with neurodegenerative diseases have concurrent intestinal lesions, and histopathological changes in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract occurs decades that evolve before neurodegenerative changes. Gut microbiome alterations also have been observed in many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and inflammatory CNS diseases. Interestingly, only recently has the dog gut microbiome been recognized to more closely resemble in composition and in functional overlap with the human gut microbiome as compared to rodent models. This article aims to review the physiology of the gut-brain axis (GBA), and its involvement with neurodegenerative diseases in dogs and humans. Additionally, we outline the advantages and disadvantages of traditional in vitro and in vivo models and discuss future research directions investigating major human neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases using dogs.

scholarly journals Bi-functional oxidized dextran–based hydrogel inducing microtumors: An in vitro three-dimensional lung tumor model for drug toxicity assays

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 204173141771839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhaval Kedaria ◽  
Rajesh Vasita
Keyword(s):  
Drug Screening ◽  
Drug Toxicity ◽  
Disease Modeling ◽  
Lung Tumor ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Chitosan Hydrogel ◽  
Oxidized Dextran

Cancer is a serious death causing disease having 8.2 million deaths in 2012. In the last decade, only about 10% of chemotherapeutic compounds showed productivity in drug screening. Two-dimensional culture assays are the most common in vitro drug screening models, which do not precisely model the in vivo condition for reliable preclinical drug screening. Three-dimensional scaffold–based cell cultures perhaps mimic tumor microenvironment and recapitulate physiologically more relevant tumor. This study was carried out to develop bi-functional oxidized dextran–based cell instructive hydrogel that provides three-dimensional environment to cancer cells for inducing microtumor. Oxidized dextran was blended with thiolated chitosan to fabricate an in situ self-gelable hydrogel (modified dextran–chitosan) in a one-step process. The hydrogels characterization revealed cross-linked network structure with highly porous structure and water absorption. The modified dextran–chitosan hydrogel showed reduced hydrophobicity and has reduced protein absorption, which resulted in changing the A549 cell adhesiveness, and encouraged them to form microtumor. The cells were proliferated in clusters having spherical morphology with randomly oriented stress fiber and large nucleus. Further microtumors were studied for hypoxia where reactive oxygen species generation demonstrated 15-fold increase as compared to monolayer culture. Drug-sensitivity results showed that microtumors generated on modified dextran–chitosan hydrogel showed resistance to doxorubicin with having 33%–58% increased growth than two-dimensional monolayer model at concentrations of 25–100 µM. In summary, the modified dextran–chitosan scaffold can provide surface chemistry that induces three-dimensional microtumors with physiologically relevant properties to in vivo tumor including growth, morphology, extracellular matrix production, hypoxic phenotype, and drug response. This model can be potentially utilized for drug toxicity studies and cancer disease modeling to understand tumor phenotype and progression.

scholarly journals Three-Dimensional Culture System of Cancer Cells Combined with Biomaterials for Drug Screening

Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teruki Nii ◽  
Kimiko Makino ◽  
Yasuhiko Tabata
Keyword(s):  
Cell Culture ◽  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Drug Screening ◽  
Culture System ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
3D Culture ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Biological Research

Anticancer drug screening is one of the most important research and development processes to develop new drugs for cancer treatment. However, there is a problem resulting in gaps between the in vitro drug screening and preclinical or clinical study. This is mainly because the condition of cancer cell culture is quite different from that in vivo. As a trial to mimic the in vivo cancer environment, there has been some research on a three-dimensional (3D) culture system by making use of biomaterials. The 3D culture technologies enable us to give cancer cells an in vitro environment close to the in vivo condition. Cancer cells modified to replicate the in vivo cancer environment will promote the biological research or drug discovery of cancers. This review introduces the in vitro research of 3D cell culture systems with biomaterials in addition to a brief summary of the cancer environment.

scholarly journals Novel Ubiquitin Specific Protease-13 Inhibitors Alleviate Neurodegenerative Pathology

Metabolites ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 622
Author(s):  
Xiaoguang Liu ◽  
Kaluvu Balaraman ◽  
Ciarán C. Lynch ◽  
Michaeline Hebron ◽  
Christian Wolf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Small Molecule ◽  
Alpha Synuclein ◽  
Protein Levels ◽  
Neurodegenerative Pathology ◽  
Specific Protease ◽  
Ubiquitin Specific Protease ◽  
The Brain

Ubiquitin Specific Protease-13 (USP13) promotes protein de-ubiquitination and is poorly understood in neurodegeneration. USP13 is upregulated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), and USP13 knockdown via shRNA reduces neurotoxic proteins and increases proteasome activity in models of neurodegeneration. We synthesized novel analogues of spautin-1 which is a non-specific USP13 inhibitor but unable to penetrate the brain. Our synthesized small molecule compounds are able to enter the brain, more potently inhibit USP13, and significantly reduce alpha-synuclein levels in vivo and in vitro. USP13 inhibition in transgenic mutant alpha-synuclein (A53T) mice increased the ubiquitination of alpha-synuclein and reduced its protein levels. The data suggest that novel USP13 inhibitors improve neurodegenerative pathology via antagonism of de-ubiquitination, thus alleviating neurotoxic protein burden in neurodegenerative diseases.

Effect of pH and inhibitors on beta-amyloid fibril assembly

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 752-753
Author(s):  
Beverly E. Maleeff ◽  
Timothy K. Hart ◽  
Stephen J. Wood ◽  
Ronald Wetzel
Keyword(s):  
Amyloid Fibril ◽  
Peptide Fragment ◽  
Hydrophobic Peptides ◽  
Amyloid Fibril Formation ◽  
Effects Of Ph ◽  
Severity Of The Disease ◽  
Kinetics Of ◽  
The Brain

Alzheimer's disease is characterized post-mortem in part by abnormal extracellular neuritic plaques found in brain tissue. There appears to be a correlation between the severity of Alzheimer's dementia in vivo and the number of plaques found in particular areas of the brain. These plaques are known to be the deposition sites of fibrils of the protein β-amyloid. It is thought that if the assembly of these plaques could be inhibited, the severity of the disease would be decreased. The peptide fragment Aβ, a precursor of the p-amyloid protein, has a 40 amino acid sequence, and has been shown to be toxic to neuronal cells in culture after an aging process of several days. This toxicity corresponds to the kinetics of in vitro amyloid fibril formation. In this study, we report the biochemical and ultrastructural effects of pH and the inhibitory agent hexadecyl-N-methylpiperidinium (HMP) bromide, one of a class of ionic micellar detergents known to be capable of solubilizing hydrophobic peptides, on the in vitro assembly of the peptide fragment Aβ.

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