The first baby generated with the DNA of three people from in vitro fertilization has been born in the UK. Known as mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT), the technique was developed to prevent children from inheriting incurable diseases from their parents.
TDM uses egg tissue from healthy donors to create IVF embryos that are free of mutations found in mothers with mitochondrial disease – which affects the part of the cell responsible for energy production.
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Although it has earned the name “three-parent babies”, approximately 99.8% of children’s DNA comes from both the mother and the father. Less than 1% of the baby’s final genetics come from the donor – around 37 genes.
In a natural pregnancy, all mitochondria of a person are inherited from the mother, if she has any mitochondrial disease, the baby is at high risk of inheriting these mutations.
Mutations that damage mitochondria usually affect tissues that consume a lot of energy, present in the heart, brain, muscles and liver, for example. Without the necessary energy, they can deteriorate as the child grows, causing illness and even death.
Mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT)
In the first stage of TDM, the father’s sperm is used to fertilize eggs from the mother with the mitochondrial disease and the healthy donor. The genetic material from the nucleus of the donor egg is removed and replaced with that from the couple’s fertilized egg. Although the egg has the couple’s chromosomes, it carries the donor’s healthy mitochondria. After consolidation, it is implanted in the uterus.
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UK regulations only allow women with severe forms of mitochondrial disease to be eligible for treatment. The candidates must prove the framework to have the approval of the British Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA)).
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The first birth from TDM was registered in the United States in 2016. The United Kingdom was the first country to approve the technique, also known as mitochondrial replacement therapy (MST), in 2015. In 2018, the Newcastle Fertility Center clinic became the first and only licensed national center to perform the procedure. Since then, the donation has been carried out only on an experimental basis.
Currently, 32 patients are waiting to undergo the procedure after receiving authorization from the HFEA.
For confidentiality reasons, doctors at the Newcastle Fertility Center clinic in the UK are not authorized to give out information about the baby’s birth.
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