Newcastle: A world-first trial has successfully led to the birth of eight healthy babies using an innovative in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique involving DNA from three people. The breakthrough offers new hope for families affected by debilitating mitochondrial diseases, which currently have no cure.
Researchers from Newcastle University in the UK and Monash University in Australia published the promising trial results in several papers featured in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Mitochondrial diseases, which affect roughly one in every 5,000 births, cause severe symptoms such as vision loss, muscle wasting, and other life-threatening complications.
The technique, approved by UK regulators in 2015, combines genetic material from three sources: the mother’s egg, the father’s sperm, and a small amount of healthy mitochondrial DNA from a donor’s egg.
This method has been controversially dubbed ‘three-parent babies,’ although only about 0.1 percent of the child’s DNA originates from the donor mitochondria.
At Newcastle Fertility Centre in northeast England, 22 women underwent the treatment. From these, eight babies: four boys and four girls were born, now aged from under six months to over two years.
In six of the children, the levels of mutated mitochondrial DNA were reduced by 95 to 100 percent, and in the remaining two, reduced by 77 to 88 percent, well below the threshold that causes disease. All eight children are currently healthy, with researchers continuing to monitor their long-term health and development.
Despite its success, the technique remains controversial and is not authorized in many countries, including the United States and France. Critics raise ethical concerns, such as the destruction of human embryos and fears of genetically engineering ‘designer babies.’ Nevertheless, advocates argue the procedure offers life-changing benefits for families grappling with these devastating genetic conditions.
