Brain organoid-on-chip system to study the effects of breast cancer derived exosomes on the neurodevelopment of brain

Early human brain development can be affected by multiple prenatal factors that involve chemical exposures in utero, maternal health characteristics such as psychiatric disorders, and cancer. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide arising pregnancy. However, it is not clear whether the breast cancer might influence the brain development of fetus. Exosomes secreted by breast cancer cells play a critical role in mediating intercellular communication and interplay between different organs. In this work, we engineered human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)-derived brain organoids in an array of micropillar chip and probed the influences of breast cancer cell (MCF-7) derived-exosomes on the early neurodevelopment of brain. The formed brain organoids can recapitulate essential features of embryonic human brain at early stages, in terms of neurogenesis, forebrain regionalization, and cortical organization. Treatment with breast cancer cell derived-exosomes, brain organoids exhibited enhanced expression of stemness-related marker OCT4 and forebrain marker PAX6. RNA-seq analysis reflected several activated signaling pathways associated with breast cancer, medulloblastoma and neurogenesis in brain organoids induced by tumor-derived exosomes. These results suggested that breast cancer cell-derived exosomes might lead to the impaired neurodevelopment in the brain organoids and the carcinogenesis of brain organoids. It potentially implies the fetus of pregnant women with breast cancer has the risk of impaired neurodevelopmental disorder after birth. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13619-021-00102-7.