Development of a neuroblastoma-on-a-chip bioengineered platform enabling the translational study of emerging nanotherapies

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a developmental cancer with a high level of vascularization. Around 50% of the affected children will develop high-risk NB, and more than half will relapse. The inability to represent complexity and interactions of the human NB hampers clinical translation. In this project, we developed an NB-on-a-chip that can partially recapitulate tumor’s behavior in vitro, allowing testing the efficiency of novel hyperthermia-based nanotherapies. Hyperthermia treatments demonstrated a reduction of cell proliferation specifically in the models treated with nanoparticles. For the biomimetic nanoparticles characterization, two polydisperse populations (exosomes and microvesicles) of EVs/EV-NPs were found, presenting negative ζ- potential. Perfusion system in the NB-on-a-chip allowed the systemic administration of nanotherapies mimicking tumor vasculature overnight.