Reconstruction of the Blood-Brain Barrier In Vitro to Model and Therapeutically Target Neurological Disease

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a key physiological component of the central nervous system (CNS), maintaining nutrients, clearing waste, and protecting the brain from pathogens. The inherent barrier properties of the BBB pose a challenge for therapeutic drug delivery into the CNS to treat neurological diseases. Impaired BBB function has been related to neurological disease. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), the deposition of amyloid in the cerebral vasculature leading to a compromised BBB, is a co-morbidity in most cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD), suggesting that BBB dysfunction or breakdown may be involved in neurodegeneration. Due to limited access to human BBB tissue, the mechanisms that contribute to proper BBB function and BBB degeneration remain unknown. To address these limitations, we have developed a human pluripotent stem cell-derived BBB (iBBB) by incorporating endothelial cells, pericytes, and astrocytes in a 3D matrix. The iBBB self-assembles to recapitulate the anatomy and cellular interactions present in the BBB. Seeding iBBBs with amyloid captures key aspects of CAA. Additionally, the iBBB offers a flexible platform to modulate genetic and environmental factors implicated in cerebrovascular disease and neurodegeneration, to investigate how genetics and lifestyle affect disease risk. Finally, the iBBB can be used for drug screening and medicinal chemistry studies to optimize therapeutic delivery to the CNS. In this protocol, we describe the differentiation of the three types of cells (endothelial cells, pericytes, and astrocytes) arising from human pluripotent stem cells, how to assemble the differentiated cells into the iBBB, and how to model CAA in vitro using exogenous amyloid. This model overcomes the challenge of studying live human brain tissue with a system that has both biological fidelity and experimental flexibility, and enables the interrogation of the human BBB and its role in neurodegeneration.