Go with the Flow—Microfluidics Approaches for Amyloid Research

Abstract

The rapid development of cost-efficient microfluidic devices has received tremendous attention from scientists of diverse fields. The growing potential of utilizing microfluidic platforms has further advanced the ability to integrate existing technology into microfluidic devices. Thus, allowing scientists to approach questions in fundamental fields, such as amyloid research, using new and otherwise unachievable conditions. Amyloids are associated with neurodegeneration and are in the forefront of many research efforts worldwide. The newly emerged microfluidic technology can serve as a novel research tool providing a platform for developing new methods in this field. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in amyloid research using microfluidic approaches. These approaches are driven from various fields, including physical chemistry, electrochemistry, biochemistry, and cell biology. Moreover, the new insights into novel microfluidic approaches for amyloid research reviewed here can be easily modified for other research interests.

Quantitative propagation of assembled human Tau from Alzheimer's disease brain in microfluidic neuronal cultures

“…This structure enables axons from one culture compartment to form synaptic connections with dendrites from the other compartment. The main positive features of the microfluidic platform are small reaction volumes, leading to minimal reagent usage, and the control over spatial and temporal separation of neuronal populations, which allows simulation of a neuronal network ( 22 ). Because one of the main pathophysiological characteristics of AD is neuronal cell death with loss of synapses and neuronal network within the brain, microfluidic devices provide an ideal platform to study neuronal connectivity and spread of Tau pathology.…”

Lab-on-a-Chip Platforms as Tools for Drug Screening in Neuropathologies Associated with Blood–Brain Barrier Alterations

“…PDMS is the most used material in microfluidics for LOC applications due to its relative facile fabrication and relevant properties such as resistance at chemical, physical, or biological agents [ 16 ]. The PDMS material confers a number of advantages: it is biocompatible, cheap, easy to model, transparent, and facilitates biological studies on cell cultures due to its properties regarding gas and water permeability [ 9 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”

“…These technologies have been employed for studying the following ( Table 4 ): the role of BBB in neuroinflammatory, neurodegenerative (e.g., Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s), or in schizophrenia pathologies [ 20 , 22 , 74 , 92 , 93 ], the interactions between BBB and combinations of cytokines and lipopolysaccharides, leading to loss of function [ 94 , 95 ], the permeability of BBB for drugs or endogenous molecules [ 17 , 23 , 96 ], the biochemical modulation of BBB [ 97 ], the antibody interaction with BBB [ 23 , 98 ], the neuronal–endothelial metabolic coupling [ 18 ], or the interaction between cancer cells and astrocytes in a BBB microenvironment [ 99 ].…”

Advancement of Peptide Nanobiotechnology via Emerging Microfluidic Technology

“…In order to fully harness the potential of peptide self-assembly for nanotechnology, it is crucial to understand the factors that affect the very process of self-assembly so that any desired nanostructure may be constructed from a bottom-up approach with absolute precision. It is with the related intention to study the formation of amyloids, aggregated proteins that have been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, that microfluidics has been employed to understand this detrimental process [42,43] so that therapeutic approaches may be refined to tackle it. While the chemical motifs that encourage/discourage peptide self-assembly have been studied and are known to a certain extent [44], the physical factors are largely unknown.…”