Lung viral infection modelling in a bioengineered whole-organ

Lung infections are one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and this situation has been exacerbated by the emergence of COVID-19. Pre-clinical modelling of viral infections has relied on cell cultures that lack 3D structure and the context of lung extracellular matrices. Here, we propose a bioreactor-based, whole-organ lung model of viral infection. The bioreactor takes advantage of an automated system to achieve efficient decellularization of a whole rat lung, and recellularization of the scaffold using primary human bronchial cells. Automatization allowed for the dynamic culture of airway epithelial cells in a breathing-mimicking setup that led to an even distribution of lung epithelial cells throughout the distal regions. In the sealed bioreactor system, we demonstrate proof-of-concept for viral infection within the epithelialized lung by infecting primary human airway epithelial cells and subsequently injecting neutrophils. Moreover, to assess the possibility of drug screening in this model, we demonstrate the efficacy of the broad-spectrum antiviral remdesivir. This whole-organ scale lung infection model represents a step towards modelling viral infection of human cells in a 3D context, providing a powerful tool to investigate the mechanisms of the early stages of pathogenic infections and the development of effective treatment strategies for respiratory diseases.

Human Amniocytes Are Receptive to Chemically Induced Reprogramming to Pluripotency

Restoring pluripotency using chemical compounds alone would be a major step forward in developing clinical-grade pluripotent stem cells, but this has not yet been reported in human cells. We previously demonstrated that VPA_AFS cells, human amniocytes cultivated with valproic acid (VPA) acquired functional pluripotency while remaining distinct from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), questioning the relationship between the modulation of cell fate and molecular regulation of the pluripotency network. Here, we used single-cell analysis and functional assays to reveal that VPA treatment resulted in a homogeneous population of self-renewing non-transformed cells that fulfill the hallmarks of pluripotency, i.e., a short G1 phase, a dependence on glycolytic metabolism, expression of epigenetic modifications on histones 3 and 4, and reactivation of endogenous OCT4 and downstream targets at a lower level than that observed in hESCs. Mechanistic insights into the process of VPA-induced reprogramming revealed that it was dependent on OCT4 promoter activation, which was achieved independently of the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase)/AKT/mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) pathway or GSK3β inhibition but was concomitant with the presence of acetylated histones H3K9 and H3K56, which promote pluripotency. Our data identify, for the first time, the pluripotent transcriptional and molecular signature and metabolic status of human chemically induced pluripotent stem cells.