iPSC-derived cerebral organoids reveal mitochondrial, inflammatory and neuronal vulnerabilities in bipolar disorder

Abstract Bipolar disorder (BD) is increasingly recognized as a disease with both mitochondrial dysfunction and heightened inflammatory reactivity, yet contribution to neuronal activity remains unclear. To address these gaps, this study utilizes iPSC-derived cerebral organoids (COs) from BD patients...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Translational Psychiatry
Main Authors: Dana El Soufi El Sabbagh, Alencar Kolinski Machado, Lauren Pappis, Erika Leigh Beroncal, Delphine Ji, George Nader, Prathyusha Ravi Chander, Jaehyoung Choi, Angela Duong, Hyunjin Jeong, Bruna Panizzutti, Chiara Cristina Bortolasci, Andrea Szatmari, Peter Carlen, Margaret Hahn, Liliana Attisano, Michael Berk, Ken Walder, Ana Cristina Andreazza
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2025-08-01
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-025-03529-7
Description
Summary:Abstract Bipolar disorder (BD) is increasingly recognized as a disease with both mitochondrial dysfunction and heightened inflammatory reactivity, yet contribution to neuronal activity remains unclear. To address these gaps, this study utilizes iPSC-derived cerebral organoids (COs) from BD patients and healthy controls to model disease-specific metabolic and inflammatory dysfunction in a more physiologically relevant system. BD COs exhibited mitochondrial impairment, dysregulated metabolic function, and increased nod-leucine rich repeat and pyrin domain containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation sensitivity. Treatment with MCC950, a selective NLRP3 inhibitor, effectively rescued mitochondrial function and reduced inflammatory activation in both BD and control COs. The effect of a Bioactive Flavonoid Extract (BFE), a potential therapeutic, was also explored and yielded a partial rescue of inflammasome activation. These findings highlight a mitochondria-inflammasome axis in BD pathophysiology and establish a novel platform for studying BD-associated cellular mechanisms, ultimately bridging the gap between molecular dysfunction and therapeutic development.
ISSN:2158-3188