Brain-model for Parkinson´s disease
CompanyOctober 2021
Emulate Inc., Boston, USA(1)
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA(2)
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA(2)
A human brain-chip representative of the substantia nigra area of the brain, the area predominantly affected in Parkinson´s disease, was developed. It contains human dopaminergic neurons, astrocytes, microglia, pericytes, and microvascular brain endothelial cells, cultured under fluid flow, thereby recreating the vascular-neuronal interface. A model of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the accumulation of aggregated α-synuclein (synucleinopathies) was created. Therefore, human α-synuclein pre-formed fibrils were introduced within the brain channel of the chip. It was demonstrated that the model replicates pathological key aspects observed in human Parkinson´s disease, including accumulation of α-Synuclein, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation and compromised blood-brain barrier function. The human α-synuclein fibril-induced disease model could provide a model for recapitulating complex pathophysiological features of Parkinson´s disease, may enable research of the dynamics of cell-cell interactions in human synucleinopathies, and serve as a testing platform for target identification and validation of novel therapeutics.
Modeling alpha-synuclein pathology in a human brain-chip to assess blood-brain barrier disruption
Iosif Pediaditakis(1), Katia Karalis(2)
Added on: 03-31-2022
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26066-5#Sec11
