Engineered 3D immuno-glial-neurovascular human miBrain model.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Patient-specific, human-based cellular models integrating a biomimetic blood-brain barrier, immune, and myelinated neuron components are critically needed to enable accelerated, translationally relevant discovery of neurological disease mechanisms and interventions. To construct a human cell-based model that includes these features and all six major brain cell types needed to mimic disease and dissect pathological mechanisms, we have constructed, characterized, and utilized a multicellular integrated brain (miBrain) immuno-glial-neurovascular model by engineering a brain-inspired 3D hydrogel and identifying conditions to coculture these six brain cell types, all differentiated from patient induced pluripotent stem cells. miBrains recapitulate in vivolike hallmarks inclusive of neuronal activity, functional connectivity, barrier function, myelin-producing oligodendrocyte engagement with neurons, multicellular interactions, and transcriptomic profiles. We implemented the model to study Alzheimer's Disease pathologies associated with genetic risk. miBrains differentially exhibit amyloid aggregation, tau phosphorylation, and astrocytic glial fibrillary acidic protein. Unlike the coemergent fate specification of glia and neurons in other organoid approaches, miBrains integrate independently differentiated cell types, a feature we harnessed to identify that in astrocytes promotes neuronal tau pathogenesis and dysregulation through crosstalk with microglia.

Year of Publication
2025
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume
122
Issue
42
Pages
e2511596122
Date Published
10/2025
ISSN
1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2511596122
PubMed ID
41105712
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