Lassa hemorrhagic shock syndrome‐on‐a‐chip

Lack of experimental human models hinders research on Lassa hemorrhagic fever and the development of treatment strategies. Here, we report the first chip‐based model for Lassa hemorrhagic syndrome. The chip features a microvessel interfacing collagen network as a simple mimic for extracellular matrix, allowing for quantitative and real‐time vascular integrity assessment. Luminal infusion of Lassa virus‐like particles led to a dramatic increase in vascular permeability in a viral load‐dependent manner. Using this platform, we showed that Fibrin‐derived peptide FX06 can be used to suppress the vascular integrity loss. This simple chip‐based model proved promising in the assessment of disease severity and provides an easy‐to‐use platform for future investigation of Lassa pathogenesis and drug development in a human‐like setting.