Eight babies have been born in the UK thanks to a groundbreaking three-person IVF technique to prevent devastating disease, in a world-first. Four boys and four girls, including one set of identical twins, have been delivered and are all doing well following treatment by a team in Newcastle, who pioneered the technique.
One other woman is currently pregnant. The scientific method, known as mitochondrial donation treatment, is designed to prevent children from being born with devastating mitochondrial diseases that are passed down from their mothers. These illnesses can be fatal and often cause devastating damage to organs including the brain, muscle, liver, heart and kidney.
The method sees scientists transplant the nuclear genome (which contains all the genes essential for a person’s characteristics, such as hair colour and height) from the egg carrying the mitochondrial DNA mutation into an egg donated by an unaffected woman that had had its nuclear genome removed.
Thanks to the procedure, the resulting baby inherits its parents’ nuclear DNA, but the mitochondrial DNA is mainly inherited from the donated egg.
The families of the babies are not speaking publicly in order to maintain their child’s privacy, but they have released statements through the Newcastle Fertility Centre where the procedures took place.
The mother of a baby girl born through mitochondrial donation said: “As parents, all we ever wanted was to give our child a healthy start in life.
“Mitochondrial donation IVF made that possible. After years of uncertainty, this treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby.
“We look at them now, full of life and possibility, and we’re overwhelmed with gratitude. Science gave us a chance.”
The mother of a baby boy added: “We are now proud parents to a healthy baby, a true mitochondrial replacement success. This breakthrough has lifted the heavy cloud of fear that once loomed over us.
“Thanks to this incredible advancement and the support we received, our little family is complete.
“The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy, and deep gratitude.”
Professor Sir Doug Turnbull, from Newcastle University and part of the team of researchers, said: “Mitochondrial disease can have a devastating impact on families.
“Today’s news offers fresh hope to many more women at risk of passing on this condition who now have the chance to have children growing up without this terrible disease.”
Scientific progress in this area led Parliament to change the law in 2015 to permit mitochondrial donation treatment.
Two years later, the Newcastle clinic became the first and only national centre licensed to perform it, with the first cases approved in 2018.
Approval is given on a case-by-case basis by the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
The new findings on the eight births, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that all the babies are developing normally.
Aged 18 months, tests are carried out in areas such as gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive and social development and language skills to check the babies are hitting milestones.
The researchers will also check the children when they are five years old.
