New IVF technique in UK produces baby with DNA from three people.

A baby with DNA from three people has been born in the UK using a new IVF technique called mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT). The baby’s DNA is mainly from the biological parents and, in addition, from a healthy female donor who contributed around 37 genes. The procedure, which was approved by the UK parliament in 2015 and a regulatory body, the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), uses tissue from the eggs of healthy female donors to create IVF embryos that are free from harmful mutations their mothers carry and are likely to pass on to their children. The embryos combine sperm and egg from the biological parents with tiny battery-like structures called mitochondria from the donor’s egg.

MDT aims to prevent children from being born with devastating mitochondrial diseases that are incurable and fatal within days or even hours of birth. Mitochondrial diseases are genetic conditions affecting the batteries of the cell, with around one in 4,300 affected children born every year. Symptoms include muscle weakness, blindness, deafness, seizures, learning disabilities, diabetes, heart and liver failure. There is no cure for mitochondrial DNA disease, and affected children often sadly die in early infancy.

The Newcastle team, who pioneered the MDT technique, aim to offer treatment for up to 25 women a year affected by mitochondrial disease, but the treatment could be held back if they don’t have enough healthy donated eggs. According to Dr Meenakshi Choudhary, a Consultant Gynaecologist at the Newcastle Fertility Centre, “Egg donation for mitochondrial donation treatment differs from other forms of egg donation in that the donor’s nuclear genetic material will not be used for treatment.”

While some critics have expressed concern over the use of the procedure, Professor Sir Doug Turnbull, who led the team that developed the treatment at Newcastle University, defended the technique, stating, “Mitochondrial donation is a major advance in reproductive medicine. We have shown that it can work and that it is extremely exciting prospectively for families that have had the transmission of these terrible diseases.”