In a truly extraordinary medical breakthrough, eight healthy babies have been born. This was the result of an amazing new in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique that incorporates DNA from three people. This groundbreaking technique is referred to as mitochondrial donation therapy (MDT). It intends to prevent the passage of untreatable genetic diseases associated with mitochondrial ailments.
Those first successful births followed the granting of a license for the procedure by the UK fertility regulator in 2017. This milestone came after a successful advocacy effort to amend state law in 2015 to permit these treatments. The kids, four boys and four girls—one of those pairs were identical twins—were carried by seven different mothers. Each child is doing well today, healthy and bouncing without any trace of the mitochondrial diseases they were previously doomed to inherit.
Of the babies, five are under one and two are between one and two. One child is older than the others. According to the reports, they are all doing well developmentally with no major health problems. A few minor complications were noted: one child experienced a urinary infection that was treated. Another had muscle jerks that resolved independently. A third developed high blood fat and a disturbance in heart rhythm, which was treated.
A group of Newcastle University doctors were the first to develop the MDT procedure. In doing so, they have taken an approach to treating genetic disorders that’s groundbreaking.
“All the children are well and they’re continuing to meet their developmental milestones,” said Bobby McFarland, a member of the medical team involved in the procedure.
Mitochondrial diseases which can cause debilitating and often fatal health issues affect an estimated one-in-5,000 newborns. Donor embryos would be created using mitochondrial donation therapy. This technique uses healthy mitochondria from a donor, greatly lowering the risk of transmitting diseases through mitochondrial DNA to children.
The mother of one of the girls commented on how grateful she was for receiving the treatment.
“As parents, all we ever wanted was to give our child a healthy start in life. After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby… we’re overwhelmed with gratitude. Science gave us a chance,” she stated.
Prof Doug Turnbull, one of the foremost scientists behind this area of research, considered what the success means.
“You are inevitably thinking it’s great for the patients and that is a relief,” he commented.
This transformative procedure provides hope to families affected by genetic disease. It fills a critical gap in reproductive medicine, opening new and exciting avenues for research and treatment. These successful births show us that MDT has the potential to one day prevent genetic disease before it ever has the chance to take hold.