A baby is the first in the United Kingdom to be born using three people’s DNA via an alternate form of in-vitro fertilization.
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The child’s DNA primarily comes from their two parents and approximately 0.1 percent from a donor. According to the BBC, the groundbreaking technique was implemented to prevent children from being born with mitochondrial diseases, as they are incurable and can be fatal within days or hours after birth. The technique is the only option for some families to have a healthy child.
Mitochondria are called the “powerhouses” of the cell because they generate most of the cell’s energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is used as a source of chemical energy for the cellular process. It is a vital process as the tiny compartments help convert food into energy. However, defective mitochondria can lead to brain damage, muscle waste, heart failure, and blindness.
Mitochondrial donation is a relatively new assisted reproductive technology that involves transferring the nucleus of an egg or embryo from a woman with the mitochondrial disease into an egg or embryo from a healthy donor whose mitochondria carry less risk of mutation.
There are two types of mitochondrial donation. Maternal spindle transfer requires the nucleus of an egg from a woman with mitochondrial disease to be removed and transferred into a healthy donor egg with its nucleus removed. The resulting egg contains the genetic material from the woman and the healthy donor, but most of the mitochondria come from the donor.
In another technique, Pronuclear transfer, the nucleus of a fertilized egg from a woman with mitochondrial disease is removed and transferred into a healthy donor egg with its nucleus removed. The resulting embryo contains the genetic material from the woman and the healthy donor, but most of the mitochondria come from the donor.
Mitochondrial donation can be used to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial diseases from a mother to her children. These diseases can be severe and have no cure, so mitochondrial donation offers an option for couples who want to have biological children without passing on these diseases to their offspring.
However, this does not pass down other traits, as the third donor only provides mitochondrial DNA. The first baby born through this technique was in the United States in 2016. Although the treatment is not new, there are risks of the mitochondria “reversing,” but the long-term effects are still being studied.
“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,” said Prof. Robin Lovell-Badge of the Francis Crick Research Institute.