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Gelatin-methacryloyl hydrogel based in vitro blood–brain barrier model for studying breast cancer-associated brain metastasis

Version 2 2025-05-08, 09:01
Version 1 2025-05-08, 08:00
journal contribution
revised on 2025-05-08, 09:00 and posted on 2025-05-08, 09:01 authored by Robin Augustine, Alap Ali Zahid, Fatima Mraiche, Khurshid Alam, Ala-Eddin Al Moustafa, Anwarul Hasan

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of brain metastasis. Metastasis to the brain occurs if cancer cells manage to traverse the ‘blood-brain barrier’ (BBB), which is a barrier with a very tight junction (TJ) of endothelial cells between blood circulation and brain tissue. It is highly important to develop novel in vitro BBB models to investigate breast cancer metastasis to the brain to facilitate the screening of chemotherapeutic agents against it. We herein report the development of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) modified transwell insert based BBB model composed of endothelial and astrocyte cell layers for testing the efficacy of anti-metastatic agents against breast cancer metastasis to the brain. We characterized the developed model for the morphology and in vitro breast cancer cell migration. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of cisplatin, a widely used chemotherapeutic agent, on the migration of metastatic breast cancer cells using the model. Our results showed that breast cancer cells migrate across the developed BBB model. Cisplatin treatment inhibited the migration of cancer cells across the model. Findings of this study suggest that our BBB model can be used as a suitable tool to investigate breast cancer-associated brain metastasis and to identify suitable therapeutic agents against this.

Other Information

Published in: Pharmaceutical Development and Technology
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10837450.2021.1872624

Funding

Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.

Qatar National Research Fund (NPRP10-0120-170211), A Novel Microchip Based Spatial Gene Expression Analysis Assay for Breast and Prostate Cancer.

Qatar National Research Fund (NPRP12S-0310-190276), A Microneedle Array based Patch Releasing Nitric oxide and oxygen for Diabetic Wounds and Ulcer Treatment.

History

Language

  • English

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publication Year

  • 2021

License statement

This Item is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Institution affiliated with

  • Qatar University
  • Qatar University Health - QU
  • Biomedical Research Center - QU
  • College of Pharmacy - QU HEALTH
  • College of Medicine - QU HEALTH
  • College of Engineering - QU