First UK baby with DNA from three people born after new IVF procedure
In a groundbreaking scientific first for the UK, a baby has been born using three people’s DNA.
The procedure, which has seen 99.8% of the DNA come from the two parents, with the rest from a donor, aims to prevent children from being brought into the world with incurable mitochondrial diseases.
Known as mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT), the technique uses tissue from the eggs of healthy female donors to create IVF embryos that are free from harmful mutations.
Mitochondrial diseases are incurable and can be fatal with days or even hours of birth – mitochondria are the minute compartments inside almost every cell of the body that convert food into useable energy.
Mitochondrial donation treatment was pioneered by doctors at the Newcastle Fertility Centre (Getty Images/iStockphoto)If these are defective then they fail to fuel the body and can lead to brain damage, muscle waste, blindness and even heart failure – about one in 6,000 babies are affected by mitochondrial disorders.
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MDT was pioneered by doctors at the Newcastle Fertility Centre and laws were introduced to allow the creation of such babies in the UK in 2015. Two years later, the clinic became the first and only national centre licensed to perform it, with the first cases approved in 2018.
By way of a freedom of information request by the Guardian, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) confirmed that a small number of babies have now been born in the UK after MDT – although they did not reveal the figure they said it was “less than five” have been born up until April 20, 2023.
“News that a small number of babies with donated mitochondria have now been born in the UK is the next step, in what will probably remain a slow and cautious process of assessing and refining mitochondrial donation,” said Sarah Norcross, the director of the Progress Educational Trust.
“It is also very important that we respect the privacy of children with donated mitochondria, and their parents, not least because these parents are likely to have had prior experience of illness and bereavement in their family.”
The technique involves transplanting nuclear DNA from a fertilised egg into a donated egg containing healthy mitochondria, or alternatively removing the damaged DNA from an egg and replacing it with healthy mitochondria.
The procedure does come with some risks attached. Research has found that in some cases, the tiny number of abnormal mitochondria that are inevitably carried over from the mother’s egg to the donor egg can multiply when the baby is in the womb. Reversion or reversal could lead to the child developing a disease.
Mitochondrial diseases are incurable and can be fatal with days or even hours of birth (Getty Images)Dagan Wells, a professor of reproductive genetics at the University of Oxford, said: “So far, the clinical experience with MRT has been encouraging, but the number of reported cases is far too small to draw any definitive conclusions about the safety or efficacy.
“Long-term follow-up of the children born is essential.”
Peter Thompson, chief executive at the HFEA, said: “MDT offers families with severe inherited mitochondrial illness the possibility of a healthy child.
“The UK was the first country in the world to allow MDT within a regulatory environment. These are still early days for MDT and the HFEA continues to review clinical and scientific developments.”
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