About this Research Topic

Background

A powerful in vitro model plays an essential role in speeding up drug development and the lack of such models could hamper drug discovery for important diseases. Therefore, it is desperately needed to develop a sophisticated in vitro model for drug development.

The conventional in vitro models mainly contain cell lines, primary cells, ex vivo models. However, the limitations of these conventional models limit their applications in drug discovery. For example, accumulating evidence indicates that cell lines are vulnerable to mutation, which might cause inconsistent results between the labs. Primary cells cannot be cultured for a long time, which hampers their broad application. Meanwhile, cell lines and primary cells only contain a single cell type, which is far different from in vivo organ and tissue. Ethic issues and shortage of resources make it difficult to use human tissues as ex vivo models. Organoids were developed by Hans Clevers’ group, which has been broadly considered to be a powerful model for drug discovery, disease modeling and biology study. Organ-on-a-chip model is based on microfluidic devices built using microfabrication, which has been widely used as a novel in vitro organ model. It was found that the organ-on-a-chip model could physically and chemically mimic the in vitro environment by using microfluidic device technology, maintenance of cellular function and morphology and replication of organ interactions. Thus, organoid, organ-on-a-chip, and their combination should be promising in vitro models in drug discovery. Indeed, several studies have shown that organoids and organ-on-a-chip models could model viral infection and antiviral drugs. For instance, Han et al used lung and colonic organoids to screen SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors [PMID: 33116299], Yin et al used primary intestinal organoids to investigate rotavirus infection and antiviral drugs [PMID: 26408355]. In a recent study, Si et al used a human-airway-on-a-chip to identify antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2 [PMID: 33941899].

This collection will showcase the high-quality work of internationally recognized researchers in the organoid, organ-on a chip and utilization of the two advanced in vitro models in virology. Specifically, the topic would like to include the use of 3D organoid and organ-on-a-chip model studies for both DNA and RNA viruses with examples such as coronaviruses, rhinoviruses and rotaviruses. We aim to highlight research by leading scientists of the future to increase our understanding of organoid and organ on a chip model and their utilization in discovering viral infection, the life cycle of the virus in the host, antiviral drug development, antiviral mechanism and related studies.

We encourage studies exploring new technology, improvements, fabrication innovation towards 3D organoids and organ-on-a-chip, and the use of these two models in virology and antiviral research. We also invite perspectives and opinion articles on current and future technology, methods and concepts that advance the field. This includes but is not limited to:

- Culture of adult stem cell or IPS/ES cell-derived 3D organoids
- Fabrication of organ-on-a-chip of various kinds of organs
- Utilization of 3D organoids and organ-on-a-chip to study virus functions, pathways, metabolisms
- Utilization of 3D organoids and organ-on-a-chip to study metabolisms, enzymes and pathways involved in the interaction between host and virus.
- Utilization of 3D organoids and organ-on-a-chip to study antiviral drugs and antiviral mechanism

While future innovations in applications of organoids and organ-on-a-chip are yet to be discovered, this Research Topic will give us an idea about the future direction ahead for the field.

Keywords: 3D, Organoids, Organ-on-a-chip, advanced in vitro model, microbiology study

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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