The technique, a particular in vitro fertilization procedure known as mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT), uses egg tissue from a healthy donor to create embryos free of certain harmful mutations and thus prevent inheriting incurable diseases
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Thanks to a special in vitro fertilization procedure that aims to prevent children from inheriting incurable diseases, a baby with the DNA of three people has been born for the first time in the UK. Most of the DNA comes from the two parents and about 0.1% from a third female donor. The pioneering technique had been trialled in Newcastle, and laws were introduced in 2015 to allow it in the UK, in an attempt to prevent the birth of babies with devastating mitochondrial disease, which can be fatal within days or even hours of birth. For some families who have lost multiple children, this technique is the only way to have a healthy child. Donor DNA is only relevant to the creation of effective mitochondria, does not affect other traits such as appearance, and does not constitute a “third parent”.
MDT research brought to UK by Newcastle Fertility Centre
The technique, known as mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT), uses egg tissue from a healthy donor to create embryos that are free from certain harmful mutations. Since the embryos combine the biological parents’ sperm and egg cell with tiny battery-like structures called mitochondria derived from the donor egg cell, the resulting baby has the mother’s and father’s DNA as usual, plus a small amount of genetic – about 37 genes – from the donor. Research into MDT, known as mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), was pioneered in the UK by doctors at the Newcastle Fertility Centre. Their goal was to help women with mutated mitochondria have babies without genetic diseases. People inherit all of their mitochondria from their mother, so harmful mutations in the “batteries” can affect all of a woman’s offspring.
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HFEA did not provide accurate data on MDT births due to privacy concerns
Progress with the MDT led the UK Parliament to amend the law in 2015 to allow for the procedure. Two years later, the Newcastle clinic became the first and only center in the country licensed to carry out the technique, with the first cases approved in 2018. Approval is given on a case-by-case basis by the UK’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Kingdom, which has given the green light for at least 30 cases. Doctors at the Newcastle clinic have not released details of the births from the MDT programme, amid fears that specific information could compromise patient confidentiality. But in response to a request based on freedom of information law from the Guardian, the HFEA confirmed that indeed one or more children are or were born in the UK after the MDT. He did not provide precise details to prevent the families from being identified. Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Francis Crick Research Institute, said: ‘It will be interesting to know how well the technique of mitochondrial replacement therapy has worked in practice, whether children are free from mitochondrial disease and whether they are at risk of developing later in life”. There is technically a risk of “reversion,” where the defective mitochondria being carried could increase in number and still cause disease.
