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posted by janrinok on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the meet-my-parents,-all-of-them dept.

Doctors have been given permission to create the UK's first "three-parent" or "three-person" babies to mitigate the risk of inheritable mitochondrial diseases:

Doctors have received permission to create the UK's first "three-person" babies for two women at risk of passing inheritable diseases to their children.

The two cases involve women who have mitochondrial diseases, which are passed down by the mother and can prove fatal.

Three-person babies involve an advanced form of IVF that uses a donor egg, the mother's egg and the father's sperm.

Doctors at the Newcastle Fertility Centre will carry out the procedure.

The decision was approved by the UK Fertility Regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Also at New Scientist.

Previously: Mitochondrial DNA Manipulation and Ethics
Approval for Three-Parent Embryo Trials
Fatal Genetic Conditions Could Return in Some 'Three-Parent' Babies
Baby Girl Born in Ukraine Using Three-Parent Pronuclear Transfer Technique
FDA Warns Doctor Against Marketing Three-Person IVF Technique

Related: First Human Embryo Editing Performed in the UK


Original Submission

Related Stories

Mitochondrial DNA Manipulation and Ethics 45 comments

GungnirSniper writes:

The US Food and Drug Administration is holding hearings to help determine if they should allow oocyte modification of mitochondrial DNA, which could prevent hereditary diseases that cause issues, such as such as seizures and blindness, from being passed on by mothers. In layman's terms, this "three-parent IVF" would allow the mitochondrial DNA of an unaffected woman to replace that of the mother while keeping the main DNA, so the child would still look like the mother and father.

From Scientific American: "Once the mtDNA has been swapped out, the egg could be fertilized in the lab by the father's sperm and the embryo would be implanted back into mom where pregnancy would proceed. The resulting child would be the genetic offspring of the intended mother but would carry healthy mitochondrial genes from the donor."

The New York Times has a shorter version of the story, as well as an opinion column urging ethical and moral consideration of this procedure.

Is this an ethical way to prevent future harm, or the start of a slippery slope to designer babies? Is the creation of designer babies immoral?

Approval for Three-Parent Embryo Trials 11 comments

The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority will decide on December 15th whether to let three-person embryo trials proceed:

Authorities in the United Kingdom may soon approve clinical testing of the so-called "three-parent embryo" technique to prevent the transmission of potentially fatal genetic disease, despite ongoing concerns about its effectiveness. An advisory panel of the U.K. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), announced today that the procedure is ready for limited clinical testing, Nature reports, and HFEA is expected to make an official decision on whether to allow such trials on 15 December.

The first baby born using the technique occurred in September.


Original Submission

Fatal Genetic Conditions Could Return in Some 'Three-Parent' Babies 3 comments

Troubling new findings have been discovered that could affect the lives of (misleadingly* branded) "three-parent" offspring born thanks to breakthrough mitochondrial replacement therapy.

The technique grabbed the world's attention when in September a baby was born bearing the DNA of three parents, a feat that overcame the otherwise fatal Leigh syndrome** genetic disorder carried by the child's mother.

It was heralded as a major step up from in vitro fertilisation. in the technique, the nucleus of an egg from the syndrome-affected mother is implanted into a female donor egg with healthy mitochondria which has had its nucleus removed. The resulting egg is fertilised with the father's sperm.

It has since been approved by the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority with the first treatments possible in 2018.

Now a paper (pdf) published in the journal Nature – and written by 30 researchers headed by Oregon Health and Science University Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov – has found mitochondrial replacement therapy in 15 per cent of cases may allow the fatal defects it amends to resurface, even introducing new defects.

[Ed. Note: The asterisk in the first line refers to a footnote in the source article; it is not a typo.]


Original Submission

Baby Girl Born in Ukraine Using Three-Parent Pronuclear Transfer Technique 5 comments

Ethicists are bothered by the circumstances surrounding the world's first use of pronuclear transfer to create a baby:

It was a first for the entire world: Using a controversial in vitro fertilization technique, doctors in Kiev, Ukraine, helped a previously infertile couple conceive and deliver a baby girl. Some critics say, for genetic reasons, the use of this IVF method should have been restricted to producing a baby boy. The baby was born on January 5, the result of an experimental technique known as "pronuclear transfer" and sometimes referred to as three-parent IVF. The 34-year-old Ukrainian mother suffered from "unexplained infertility," according to Dr. Valery Zukin, director of the Nadiya Clinic for Reproductive Medicine, where the controversial pronuclear transfer technique was performed. She did not have mitochondrial disease.

[...] The reason this experimental method is a cause for concern -- and was vigorously debated in the UK before approval -- is the genetic modifications produced in a girl baby could be passed onto her children, according to Lori P. Knowles, adjunct assistant professor at the University of Alberta School of Public Health.

Boy babies carrying donor mitochondria cannot pass their modified genetics onto any future children they may have because once a sperm fuses with an egg to form an embryo, the masculine mitochondrion withers and dies leaving the resulting embryo with only mitochondrion from the mother's egg. "I do think it's highly significant that this is a girl because we know for sure that she will be passing on her mitochondrial DNA through her maternal line," said Knowles. If in the future this baby girl has genetic children, they will inherit her genetic modifications "and that's always been a really bright line," said Knowles -- a line not to be crossed until rigorous scientific testing proves it is safe.

The previous three-parent baby was conceived using spindle nuclear transfer, and couldn't pass on donor mitochondrial DNA (well, conventionally anyway) as a male. The Ukrainian procedure was used as a workaround for infertility rather than mitochondrial disease. The article also notes that Dr. Valery Zukin, director of the Nadiya Clinic for Reproductive Medicine where the procedure was performed, is also the vice president of the medical review board that approved the procedure.

Also at BBC and Smithsonian Magazine:

The mother in question had been unable to get pregnant for 15 years. Using the procedure as an IVF technique allows doctors to bypass cells or enzymes in the mother's egg that might prevent pregnancy or hinder cell division, explains Andy Coghlan at New Scientist .

Previously: Mitochondrial DNA Manipulation and Ethics
Approval for Three-Parent Embryo Trials
Fatal Genetic Conditions Could Return in Some 'Three-Parent' Babies


Original Submission

FDA Warns Doctor Against Marketing Three-Person IVF Technique 2 comments

Back in September, it was reported that spindle nuclear transfer was used to successfully transfer mitochondrial DNA into an egg in order to prevent a child from inheriting a mitochondrial disorder. The procedure was carried out in Mexico due to U.S. laws against it. Now, the FDA has warned the doctor behind this milestone to stop using the achievement in marketing materials for his fertility clinic:

The US Food and Drug Administration has told a New York fertility doctor to stop marketing a controversial three-parent fertility treatment, which makes it possible for babies to be made from two women and a man.

The health watchdog published a letter to Dr. John Zhang, founder of the New Hope Fertility Center in New York City, whose "spindle nuclear transfer" technique was used to conceive a boy born in Mexico in April 2016.

Zhang detailed the procedure in the journal Fertility and Sterility [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.08.004] [DX] last year and is now marketing the technique, but the letter reminds Zhang the FDA has not authorized his use of the procedure in humans.


Original Submission

First Human Embryo Editing Performed in the UK 6 comments

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute have performed the UK's first human embryo editing experiment:

The blueprint for life - DNA - has been altered in human embryos for the first time in the UK. The team at the Francis Crick Institute are unravelling the mysteries of the earliest moments of life. Understanding what happens after a sperm fertilises an egg could lead to ways of improving IVF or explain why some women miscarry. The embryos were modified shortly after fertilisation and allowed to develop for seven days.

[...] The researchers used 41 embryos that had been donated by couples who no longer needed them for IVF. After performing the genetic modification, the team could watch how the embryos developed without OCT4.

Over the course of the first seven days, a healthy, normal embryo goes from one cell to about 200. It also goes through the first steps of organising itself and handing out specialised jobs to different cells. The embryo forms a hollow sphere called a blastocyst, with some cells destined to go on to form the placenta, some the yolk sac and others, ultimately, us. But without OCT4 the blastocyst cannot form. It tries - but implodes in on itself. From the embryo's perspective it is a disaster but for scientists it has given unprecedented insight.

Oct-4.

Also at CNN, Science Magazine, and The Guardian.

Genome editing reveals a role for OCT4 in human embryogenesis (open, DOI: 10.1038/nature24033) (DX)


Original Submission

Singapore Could Become the Second Country to Legalize Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy 10 comments

Singapore could become the second country to legalize mitochondrial replacement therapy

This small city state could become the second country—after the United Kingdom—to explicitly legalize mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), a controversial assisted reproduction technique that allows women who are carriers of some rare genetic disorders to give birth to healthy babies.

Members of the Singaporean public and religious groups have until 15 June to provide their feedback about MRT to the Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC). Based on its findings, a 13-member BAC review committee will make formal recommendations to the government later this year about whether to legalize the technology.

"Our position is to keep a close watch on what happens in the U.K., to track the U.K. experience, and to learn from what they have done," says Oi Lian Kon, who studies human genetics at the National Cancer Centre Singapore and is leading the BAC review group.

MRT is used to address devastating genetic diseases that arise from abnormalities in the DNA in mitochondria, the cell's power sources, and that commonly affect energy-intensive organs such as the brain and heart, as well as muscles. Children inherit mitochondria only from their mothers; replacing faulty mitochondria in an egg or embryo with normal ones from a donor can result in healthy babies. But it also means that offspring will bear DNA from three "parents," which makes MRT a controversial procedure.

Previously: UK Parliament Gives Three-"Source" IVF the Go-Ahead.
Approval for Three-Parent Embryo Trials
UK's Fertility Regulator Approves Creation of First "Three-Parent" Babies

Related: U.S. Panel Gives Tentative Endorsement to Three-Person IVF
Newcastle University Study Verifies Safety of Three-Person IVF
First Three-Person Baby Born Using Spindle Nuclear Transfer
Baby Girl Born in Ukraine Using Three-Parent Pronuclear Transfer Technique


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:57AM (2 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:57AM (#632306) Journal

    Only SF aliens I can think of offhand with 3 sexes. Guess the SF I read wasn't the really juicy, radical stuff. And they weren't 3 sexes, they were whitewashing the fact that they were really 2 sexes who parasitically reproduce on a different species similar to the way digger wasps do.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 03 2018, @02:23AM (1 child)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday February 03 2018, @02:23AM (#632314) Homepage

      Wasn't there a reference in Star Trek: Enterprise in which Dr. Phlox introduced the concept of a 3-gender civilization and the question of its reproduction was a point of humor?

      • (Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Saturday February 03 2018, @08:12AM

        by SanityCheck (5190) on Saturday February 03 2018, @08:12AM (#632410)

        Species 8472 has something like 13 sexes. Of course it is not necessary for all the sexes to mate with all the other ones.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Justin Case on Saturday February 03 2018, @02:03AM

    by Justin Case (4239) on Saturday February 03 2018, @02:03AM (#632310) Journal

    I assume our friend Snow will be moving to UK ASAP???

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 03 2018, @03:06AM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 03 2018, @03:06AM (#632329) Journal

    Every nation needs a fertility regulator. If the birthrate falls to low, the regulator turns a couple valves, thereby increasing birthrate. If population grows to quickly, he turns those valves the other way. Sounds like a cool job. Just browse the birth and death rates, and watch for any spikes, make the appropriate adjustments, then sit back and drink a cold one.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:05AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:05AM (#632386)

    Ah good, there will still be one man to saddle with the child support payments if the relationship breaks up.

    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:18AM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:18AM (#632433) Journal

      I think that you are missing the point. This is a normal married couple, but the wife carries a inheritable disease which could be passed to her unborn child.

      The three-person baby procedure involves the donation of healthy mitochondria from a third person.

      But mitochondria have their own DNA, which is why resulting children have DNA from three people.

      However, everything that defines physical and personality traits still comes from parents.

      In all likelihood, the donor will remain anonymous.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:35AM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:35AM (#632393) Journal

    This may be for a different disease, but IIRC Britain had approved a 3-person baby process around a year ago to treat some sort of mitochondria disease.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:11AM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:11AM (#632430) Journal

      That wasn't a blanket approval - each case has still to be argued on its own merit, if I understand things correctly.

      In this case, 2 additional treatments have been approved.

  • (Score: 2) by Bill Evans on Monday February 05 2018, @12:15PM

    by Bill Evans (1094) on Monday February 05 2018, @12:15PM (#633248) Homepage

    I saw "three-patent babies".

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