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Review
. 2024 Feb;121(2):489-506.
doi: 10.1002/bit.28606. Epub 2023 Nov 28.

Brain organoids: A revolutionary tool for modeling neurological disorders and development of therapeutics

Prabha Acharya  1 , Na Young Choi  1   2 , Sunil Shrestha  1 , Sehoon Jeong  2 , Moo-Yeal Lee  1
Affiliations
Review

Brain organoids: A revolutionary tool for modeling neurological disorders and development of therapeutics

Prabha Acharya et al. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Brain organoids are self-organized, three-dimensional (3D) aggregates derived from pluripotent stem cells that have cell types and cellular architectures resembling those of the developing human brain. The current understanding of human brain developmental processes and neurological disorders has advanced significantly with the introduction of this in vitro model. Brain organoids serve as a translational link between two-dimensional (2D) cultures and in vivo models which imitate the neural tube formation at the early and late stages and the differentiation of neuroepithelium with whole-brain regionalization. In addition, the generation of region-specific brain organoids made it possible to investigate the pathogenic and etiological aspects of acquired and inherited brain disease along with drug discovery and drug toxicity testing. In this review article, we first summarize an overview of the existing methods and platforms used for generating brain organoids and their limitations and then discuss the recent advancement in brain organoid technology. In addition, we discuss how brain organoids have been used to model aspects of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Rett syndrome, Zika virus-related microcephaly, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and Huntington's disease (HD).

Keywords: embryoid bodies (EBs); human brain organoids (HBOs); human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs); neural progenitor cells (NPCs); neurological disorders.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Methods of generating brain organoids
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Advances in the generation of brain organoids. (a) Bioreactors for organoid culture, (b) Microfluidic devices for organoid culture, (c) Vascularized brain organoids, (d) Fusion of region-specific brain organoids, (e) Air-liquid interface culture of brain organoids.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Modeling of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases in brain organoids
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
The applications of brain organoids
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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