UK Researchers panel backs potential ‘three-parent’ IVF babies

New techniques to prevent mums passing on serious mitochondrial disease to their unborn babies, are potentially useful, but only for specific and defined groups, a panel of experts has concluded today.

It will now be up to the government to decide whether to pass legislation to make these techniques available in the UK.

The panel appointed by regulators the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) concluded that the controversial IVF technique was “potentially useful” and did not appear to be unsafe.

But it added there was still more research to be done – some of it “critical” – before such treatment should be offered.

Fertility rules were changed by the Government in February paving the way for Britain becoming the first country in the world to allow mitochondrial replacement (MR) therapy.

A final decision to allow the treatments will need the approval of both houses of Parliament but could come as early as next year.

Mitochondria are tiny powerhouses in cells that generate energy and have a small amount of their own DNA, separate from the bulk of the human genetic code.

Defects in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are responsible for a host of inherited diseases, including conditions leading to muscle wasting, heart problems, loss of vision, organ failure and epilepsy.

MR treatment, which employs two different IVF techniques, aims to prevent these diseases by giving babies healthy mtDNA from donor eggs.

The baby is born with normal “nuclear” DNA passed down by its parents – containing most inherited traits such as eye and hair colour and height – plus a tiny amount of mtDNA donated by a second donor “mother”.

In effect the baby has three genetic parents, though the donated mtDNA contains less than 1% of its genes.

Since the healthy mtDNA would be inherited by future generations, the treatment has the potential to eradicate mitochondrial diseases from affected families.

Critics argue that allowing the treatments could be the first step down a slippery slope towards “designer babies” and eugenics.

If mitochondrial replacement is permitted, more than 100 “three-parent” babies could be born in the UK each year.

The new expert review, the third published, was requested by the Department of Health and forms part of a broader process of consultation.

HFEA chairwoman Sally Cheshire said: ” The review process has assembled an evidence base on the safety and efficacy of these two mitochondrial replacement techniques which stands comparison with anything published in the UK or abroad.

“The science is complex, but the aim is simple: to enable mothers to not pass on to their children a range of serious, and sometimes fatal, inherited conditions. In all of our discussions we should not lose sight of this.

” Now it is a question for others. If the Government decides to seek to change the law they will need the approval of both Houses of Parliament, and it is only right that they consider all the ramifications, social as well as medical, before they make up their minds.

“There is a long way to go yet.”

Panel chairman and HFEA member Dr Andy Greenfield, from the Medical Research Council’s research unit in Harwell, Oxfordshire, said: “The Panel has examined, discussed and re-examined data from disparate fields of science, including biochemistry, evolutionary biology, the genetics and developmental biology of model organisms and, of course, clinical genetics and embryology.

“We believe that our recommendations are firmly based on the data that we examined.”

In their report, the experts said mitochondrial replacement techniques were “potentially useful for a specific and defined group of patients: those wishing to have their own genetically related child, but whose offspring are at risk of severe or lethal genetic disease, due to mutations in mtDNA which the mother carries”.

They added: ” At each review, the panel has reached a view that the evidence it has seen does not suggest that these techniques are unsafe. That remains the panel’s current view.”

Panel member and stem cell scientist Professor Peter Braude, from King’s College London, said: “As a clinician I am aware that inherited mitochondrial disorders are horrible diseases that can devastate families.

“In the absence of any effective treatment, mitochondrial replacement therapies … offer great hope to families afflicted by mitochondrial disorders.”

Agencies/Canadajournal