Inflammatory responses revealed through HIV infection of microglia-containing cerebral organoids
Srinivas D. Narasipura, Janet Zayas, Michelle K. Ash, Anjelica F. Reyes, Tanner Shull, Stéphanie Gambut, James L. A. Szczerkowski, Charia McKee, Jeffrey R. Schneider, Ramón Lorenzo-Redondo, Lena Al‐Harthi, João I. Mamede
Abstract
Cerebral organoids (COs) are valuable tools for studying the intricate interplay between glial cells and neurons in brain development and disease, including HIV-associated neuroinflammation. We developed a novel approach to generate microglia containing COs (CO-iMs) by co-culturing hematopoietic progenitors and inducing pluripotent stem cells. This approach allowed for the differentiation of microglia within the organoids concomitantly with the neuronal progenitors. Compared with conventional COs, CO-iMs were more efficient at generating CD45 + /CD11b + /Iba-1 + microglia and presented a physiologically relevant proportion of microglia (~ 7%). CO-iMs presented substantially increased expression of microglial homeostatic and sensome markers as well as markers for the complement cascade. CO-iMs are susceptible to HIV infection, resulting in a significant increase in several pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines, which are abrogated by the addition of antiretrovirals. Thus, CO-iM is a robust model for deciphering neuropathogenesis, neuroinflammation, and viral infections of brain cells in a 3D culture system.