Willner Moshe J, Xiao Yang, Kim Hye Sung, Chen Xuejing, Xu Bin, Leong Kam W
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Institute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
J Tissue Eng. 2021 Feb 26;12:2041731420985299. doi: 10.1177/2041731420985299. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.
The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated a preexisting epidemic: the opioid crisis. Much literature has shown that the circumstances imposed by COVID-19, such as social distancing regulations, medical and financial instability, and increased mental health issues, have been detrimental to those with opioid use disorder (OUD). In addition, unexpected neurological sequelae in COVID-19 patients suggest that COVID-19 compromises neuroimmunity, induces hypoxia, and causes respiratory depression, provoking similar effects as those caused by opioid exposure. Combined conditions of COVID-19 and OUD could lead to exacerbated complications. With limited human in vivo options to study these complications, we suggest that iPSC-derived brain organoid models may serve as a useful platform to investigate the physiological connection between COVID-19 and OUD. This mini-review highlights the advances of brain organoids in other neuropsychiatric and infectious diseases and suggests their potential utility for investigating OUD and COVID-19, respectively.
阿片类药物危机。大量文献表明，新冠疫情所带来的种种情况，如社交距离规定、医疗和经济不稳定以及心理健康问题增多，对患有阿片类药物使用障碍（OUD）的人造成了损害。此外，新冠患者出现的意外神经后遗症表明，新冠病毒会损害神经免疫、导致缺氧并引起呼吸抑制，引发与阿片类药物暴露所造成的类似影响。新冠和阿片类药物使用障碍的合并情况可能会导致并发症加剧。由于研究这些并发症的人体体内研究选项有限，我们认为诱导多能干细胞衍生的脑类器官模型可能是一个有用的平台，用于研究新冠和阿片类药物使用障碍之间的生理联系。这篇小型综述突出了脑类器官在其他神经精神疾病和传染病方面的进展，并分别表明了它们在研究阿片类药物使用障碍和新冠方面的潜在用途。
