This was reported this morning (thanks Tokan for the tip.) It was accomplished to combat a genetic disease, and is a permanent change which will be passed down to future generations. Doctors now need to watch and check effects. Well, excess desire, and the tendency to violence and extreme anger, lack of empathy toward others and the like are also traditional Buddhist diseases which happen also to have some contributing genetic components ... just sayin' ...
[BBC] BABY BORN FROM THREE PEOPLE'S DNA IN UK FIRST
A baby has been born using three people's DNA for the first time in the UK, the fertility regulator has confirmed. Most of their DNA comes from their two parents and around 0.1% from a third, donor woman.
The pioneering technique is an attempt to prevent children being born with devastating mitochondrial diseases. Up to five such babies have been born, but no further details have been released.
... This is a permanent change that would be passed down through the generations.
This donor DNA is only relevant for making effective mitochondria, does not affect other traits such as appearance and does not constitute a "third parent".
... There has been no word from the teams in Newcastle so it is still uncertain whether the technique was successful. Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Francis Crick Research Institute, said: "It will be interesting to know how well the mitochondrial replacement therapy technique worked at a practical level, whether the babies are free of mitochondrial disease, and whether there is any risk of them developing problems later in life."
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65538866
A baby has been born using three people's DNA for the first time in the UK, the fertility regulator has confirmed. Most of their DNA comes from their two parents and around 0.1% from a third, donor woman.
The pioneering technique is an attempt to prevent children being born with devastating mitochondrial diseases. Up to five such babies have been born, but no further details have been released.
... This is a permanent change that would be passed down through the generations.
This donor DNA is only relevant for making effective mitochondria, does not affect other traits such as appearance and does not constitute a "third parent".
... There has been no word from the teams in Newcastle so it is still uncertain whether the technique was successful. Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Francis Crick Research Institute, said: "It will be interesting to know how well the mitochondrial replacement therapy technique worked at a practical level, whether the babies are free of mitochondrial disease, and whether there is any risk of them developing problems later in life."
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65538866
Because the embryos combine sperm and egg from the biological parents with tiny battery-like structures called mitochondria from the donor’s egg, the resulting baby has DNA from the mother and father as usual, plus a small amount of genetic material – about 37 genes – from the donor.
The process has led to the phrase “three-parent babies”, though more than 99.8% of the DNA in the babies comes from the mother and father. ...
... The work aimed to help women with mutated mitochondria to have babies without the risk of passing on genetic disorders. People inherit all their mitochondria from their mother, so harmful mutations in the “batteries” can affect all of the children a woman has.
For affected women, natural conception is often a gamble. Some babies might be born healthy because they inherit only a tiny proportion of the mutated mitochondria. But others may inherit far more and develop severe, progressive and often fatal diseases. About one in 6,000 babies are affected by mitochondrial disorders.
Most of a human’s 20,000 genes are coiled up in the nucleus of nearly every cell in the body. But dotted around each nucleus are thousands of mitochondria with their own genes. When functioning properly, the mitochondria provide vital energy for the cells that make up our organs. Mutations that damage the mitochondria tend to affect energy-hungry tissues most: the brain, heart, muscles, and liver. These can deteriorate relentlessly as an affected child grows.
Progress with MDT led parliament to change the law in 2015 to permit the procedure.
... The Newcastle process has several steps. First, sperm from the father is used to fertilise eggs from the affected mother and a healthy female donor. The nuclear genetic material from the donor’s egg is then removed and replaced with that from the couple’s fertilised egg. The resulting egg has a full set of chromosomes from both parents, but carries the donor’s healthy mitochondria instead of the mother’s faulty ones. This is then implanted in the womb.
The procedure is not without risks. Recent 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. So-called reversion or reversal could lead to a disease in the child. “The reason why reversal is seen in the cells of some children born following MRT procedures, but not in others, is not fully understood,” said Dagan Wells, a professor of reproductive genetics at the University of Oxford who took part in the research.
Women with mitochondrial mutations can avoid passing on disorders by adopting or having IVF with a donor egg. Or, to have genetically related children, affected women can have their IVF embryos screened for mitochondrial mutations. Though effective in many cases, this reduces the risk rather than removing it completely, and it cannot help when all of the embryos a woman produces have highly mutated mitochondria.
The UK is not the first country to create babies from MDT. In 2016, a US doctor announced the world’s first MDT birth after treating a Jordanian woman who carried mitochondrial mutations that cause a fatal condition called Leigh syndrome. Prior to the treatment, performed in Mexico, the woman had four miscarriages and two children. One died aged six, the other lived for only eight months.
“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,” said Wells. “Long-term follow-up of the children born is essential. The stage of development when reversal happens is unclear, but it probably occurs at a very early stage. This means that prenatal testing, carried out [at] about 12 weeks of pregnancy, may well succeed in identifying if reversal has occurred.”
Sarah Norcross, the director of Pet, a charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions, said it was important for the technology to be used in a “measured and carefully regulated way” while it is assessed. “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,” she added.
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.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/...-ivf-procedure
The process has led to the phrase “three-parent babies”, though more than 99.8% of the DNA in the babies comes from the mother and father. ...
... The work aimed to help women with mutated mitochondria to have babies without the risk of passing on genetic disorders. People inherit all their mitochondria from their mother, so harmful mutations in the “batteries” can affect all of the children a woman has.
For affected women, natural conception is often a gamble. Some babies might be born healthy because they inherit only a tiny proportion of the mutated mitochondria. But others may inherit far more and develop severe, progressive and often fatal diseases. About one in 6,000 babies are affected by mitochondrial disorders.
Most of a human’s 20,000 genes are coiled up in the nucleus of nearly every cell in the body. But dotted around each nucleus are thousands of mitochondria with their own genes. When functioning properly, the mitochondria provide vital energy for the cells that make up our organs. Mutations that damage the mitochondria tend to affect energy-hungry tissues most: the brain, heart, muscles, and liver. These can deteriorate relentlessly as an affected child grows.
Progress with MDT led parliament to change the law in 2015 to permit the procedure.
... The Newcastle process has several steps. First, sperm from the father is used to fertilise eggs from the affected mother and a healthy female donor. The nuclear genetic material from the donor’s egg is then removed and replaced with that from the couple’s fertilised egg. The resulting egg has a full set of chromosomes from both parents, but carries the donor’s healthy mitochondria instead of the mother’s faulty ones. This is then implanted in the womb.
The procedure is not without risks. Recent 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. So-called reversion or reversal could lead to a disease in the child. “The reason why reversal is seen in the cells of some children born following MRT procedures, but not in others, is not fully understood,” said Dagan Wells, a professor of reproductive genetics at the University of Oxford who took part in the research.
Women with mitochondrial mutations can avoid passing on disorders by adopting or having IVF with a donor egg. Or, to have genetically related children, affected women can have their IVF embryos screened for mitochondrial mutations. Though effective in many cases, this reduces the risk rather than removing it completely, and it cannot help when all of the embryos a woman produces have highly mutated mitochondria.
The UK is not the first country to create babies from MDT. In 2016, a US doctor announced the world’s first MDT birth after treating a Jordanian woman who carried mitochondrial mutations that cause a fatal condition called Leigh syndrome. Prior to the treatment, performed in Mexico, the woman had four miscarriages and two children. One died aged six, the other lived for only eight months.
“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,” said Wells. “Long-term follow-up of the children born is essential. The stage of development when reversal happens is unclear, but it probably occurs at a very early stage. This means that prenatal testing, carried out [at] about 12 weeks of pregnancy, may well succeed in identifying if reversal has occurred.”
Sarah Norcross, the director of Pet, a charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions, said it was important for the technology to be used in a “measured and carefully regulated way” while it is assessed. “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,” she added.
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.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/...-ivf-procedure
How mitochondrial donations works:
Gassho, J
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