Single-cell transcriptomics identifies perturbed molecular pathways in midbrain organoids using α-synuclein...

Three-dimensional (3D) brain organoids provide a platform to study brain development, cellular coordination, and disease using human tissue. Here, we generate midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from healthy and Parkinson's Disease (PD) donors and assess them as a human PD model using single-cell RNAseq. We characterize cell types in our organoid cultures and analyze our model's Dopamine (DA) neurons using cytotoxic and genetic stressors. Our study provides the first in-depth, single-cell analysis of SNCA triplication and shows evidence for molecular dysfunction in oxidative phosphorylation, translation, and ER protein-folding in DA neurons. We perform an in-silico identification of rotenone-sensitive DA neurons and characterization of corresponding transcriptomic profiles associated with synaptic signalling and cholesterol biosynthesis. Finally, we show a novel chimera organoid model from healthy and PD iPSCs allowing the study of DA neurons from different individuals within the same tissue.