A Living Organoid Biobank of Crohn's Disease Patients Reveals Molecular Subtypes for Personalized Therapeutics

Abstract

ABSTRACT (Structured)Crohns disease (CD) is a complex, clinically heterogeneous disease of multifactorial origin; there is no perfect pre-clinical model, little insight into the basis for such heterogeneity, and still no cure. To address these unmet needs, we sought to explore the translational potential of adult stem cell-derived organoids that not only retain their tissue identity, but also their genetic and epigenetic disease-driving traits. We prospectively created a biobank of CD patient-derived organoid cultures (PDOs) using biopsied tissues from colons of 34 consecutive subjects representing all clinical subtypes (Montreal Classification B1-B3 and perianal disease). PDOs were generated also from healthy subjects. Comparative gene expression analyses enabled benchmarking of PDOs as tools for modeling the colonic epithelium in active disease and revealed that despite the clinical heterogeneity there are two major molecular subtypes: immune-deficient infectious-CD [IDICD] and stress and senescence-induced fibrostenotic-CD [S2FCD]. The transcriptome, genome and phenome show a surprising degree of internal consistency within each molecular subtype. The spectrum of morphometric, phenotypic, and functional changes within the "living biobank" reveals distinct differences between the molecular subtypes. These insights enabled drug screens that reversed subtype-specific phenotypes, e.g., impaired microbial clearance in IDICD was reversed using agonists for nuclear receptors, and senescence in S2FCD was rectified using senotherapeutics, but not vice versa. Phenotyped-genotyped CD-PDOs may fill the gap between basic biology and patient trials by enabling pre-clinical Phase 0 human trials for personalized therapeutics. GRAPHIC ABSTRACT O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/532245v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (58K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1edcea0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@198a3c8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@28d394org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@5a9dbb_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG In BriefThis work creates a prospectively biobanked phenotyped-genotyped Crohns disease patient-derived organoids (CD-PDOs) as platforms for molecular subtyping of disease and for ushering personalized therapeutics. HIGHLIGHTSO_LIProspectively biobanked CD-organoids recapitulate the disease epithelium in patients C_LIO_LIThe phenome-transcriptome-genome of CD-organoids converge on two molecular subtypes C_LIO_LIOne subtype shows impaired microbial clearance, another increased cellular senescence C_LIO_LIPhenotyped-genotyped PDOs are then used for integrative and personalized therapeutics C_LI