AIRWAY ORGANOIDS TO STUDY AND TREAT ASTHMA

Abstract

  Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease, and its biological heterogeneity leads to variable responses to treatment. Human organoid platforms are becoming promising models because, compared with conventional 2D cell cultures, they better preserve the human genetic background, three-dimensional tissue architecture, and key cell–cell and cell–microenvironment interactions [1–3]. Organoid technology is based on cellular self-organisation and stem cell biology: organoids generated from adult or pluripotent stem cells can be used to model disease, perform drug screening and toxicity testing, apply precision-medicine strategies using patient biopsies, and contribute to the development of regenerative medicine approaches [1,2]. In recent years, lung organoid generation has advanced rapidly–defined, serum–free, and less Matrigeldependent culture conditions are increasingly used, helping to produce more reliable and reproducible results. These models are now widely applied to study infections, asthma and COPD, pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer [2,3]. Organoid culture systems are also combined with microfluidic technology, co-cultures, digitalisation and 3D printing, creating more opportunities to detect earlier whether a predicted therapy is likely to be effective, thereby reducing the risk of failure in late-stage clinical development and supporting more appropriate treatment selection for individual patients [1–3].