Organ-on-a-chip: a preclinical microfluidic platform for the progress of nanomedicine

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Vol. 16; no. 51; pp. 2003517(1) - 2003517(19)
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, Raquel Oliveira, Sousa, Patrícia C., Gaspar, João, Bañobre-López, Manuel, Lima, Rui Alberto Madeira Macedo, Minas, Graça
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley 01.12.2020; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: a‐ Biosensors; chip; Engenharia e Tecnologia; Engenharia Médica; Microfluidics; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; on‐ organ‐ organ‐on‐a‐chip; Platforms; Science & Technology; theranostics; Three dimensional models; tissue engineering; theranostics; tissue engineering; biosensors; organ-on-a-chip; nanoparticles
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202003517

Despite the progress achieved in nanomedicine during the last decade, the translation of new nanotechnology-based therapeutic systems into clinical applications has been slow, especially due to the lack of robust preclinical tissue culture platforms able to mimic the in vivo conditions found in the human body and to predict the performance and biotoxicity of the developed nanomaterials. Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) platforms are novel microfluidic tools that mimic complex human organ functions at the microscale level. These integrated microfluidic networks, with 3D tissue engineered models, have been shown high potential to reduce the discrepancies between the results derived from preclinical and clinical trials. However, there are many challenges that still need to be addressed, such as the integration of biosensor modules for long-time monitoring of different physicochemical and biochemical parameters. In this review, recent advances on OoC platforms, particularly on the preclinical validation of nanomaterials designed for cancer, as well as the current challenges and possible future directions for an end-use perspective are discussed. This work is the result of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-029394, RTChip4Theranostics, and was supported by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte–Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), IP, project reference PTDC/EMD-EMD/29394/2017. The authors also acknowledge the partial financial support by the projects UID/EEA/04436/2020, UID/ EMS/04077/2020, UID/EMS/00532/2020 from FCT; and by the projects NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030171 (PTDC/EMD-EMD/30171/2017), NORTE01-0145-FEDER-000019, NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-031142, POCI-01-0145- FEDER-028237, funded by NORTE 2020 Portugal Regional Operational Programme, under PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund and by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT); and by 2014–2020 INTERREG Cooperation Programme Spain–Portugal (POCTEP) through the project 0624_2IQBIONEURO_6_E.