Babies from three people’s DNA prevents hereditary disease | BBC News - video Dailymotion

Bbc News

#UK #Babies #BBCNews Doctors say that eight babies have been born in the UK using genetic material from three people to prevent devastating and often fatal conditions.   The method, pioneered by UK scientists, combines the egg and sperm from a mum and dad with a second egg from a donor woman.   The technique has been legal here for a decade - but there is now proof it is leading to children born free of incurable mitochondrial disease.   Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog   For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news   #UK #Babies #BBCNews

Transcript

00:00Next are major medical breakthroughs giving hope to hundreds of women here in the UK who are

00:04carriers of a devastating and often fatal genetic illness. Eight children have now been born free

00:10of the incurable mitochondrial disease through a new technique pioneered by British scientists.

00:17The new method, which uses genetic material from three people, combines the egg and sperm from a

00:22mother and father with a second egg from a donor woman. The technique's been legal in the UK for

00:27a decade, but this is the first proof that it's leading to children born free of the disease.

00:33Our health correspondent James Gallagher has this report.

00:36This is the moment. DNA from a mum and dad injected into a fertilised egg from a second woman.

00:44The first step towards a baby made from three people.

00:51It's a way of preventing mitochondrial disease, which runs through the Kitto family.

00:55Kat's youngest daughter Poppy has the disease. Her eldest Lily may pass it on to her children.

01:03Poppy's in a wheelchair, is non-verbal and is fed through a tube. Around 120 children a year are born

01:10with mitochondrial disease. Other families have had babies die in the first months of life.

01:16It's impacted a huge part of her life and ultimately then our lives in terms of what we can do as a

01:23family. We have a lovely time as she is, but there are the moments where you realise how devastating

01:29mitochondrial disease is.

01:32These are mitochondria. They're found in nearly every cell of your body and if they're defective

01:38they starve it of energy causing disease. They're passed down only from mother to child through the

01:44mother's egg. So this is how the three-person IVF technique works. The mother's egg is fertilised with

01:51mother dad's sperm and becomes an embryo. And here in the middle are the pronuclei that contain the key

01:57DNA that shapes who we are. But it's also full of defective mitochondria that could cause disease.

02:05So a second embryo is made. This uses an egg from a donor woman who has healthy mitochondria. The

02:13pronuclei are removed from this donor embryo and mum and dad's DNA is moved in. It's now an embryo made

02:21from three people that can be implanted into the womb. But mitochondria contain their own small piece

02:27of genetic code so it means the resulting child inherits 99.9% of their DNA from mum and dad and around 0.1%

02:36from the donor woman. And this is a change that will be passed down to future generations.

02:43The treatment took place here at the Newcastle Fertility Centre. The eight babies all appear

02:48free of mitochondrial disease. None of the families are speaking publicly but in an anonymous statement

02:54one mother said, after years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope and then it gave us our baby.

03:02We look at them now full of life and possibility and we're overwhelmed with gratitude.

03:08To see the relief and joy on the faces of the parents of these babies after such a long wait and

03:14such fear about the consequences for them from their family histories. It's brilliant to be able to

03:22see these babies live, thriving and developing normally.

03:26Lily is still 16 and has only just finished her GCSEs. But this pioneering approach is allowing her to

03:35imagine her own motherhood. It's the future generations like myself or my children or my cousins who

03:45can have that outlook of sort of a normal life. James Gallagher, BBC News.

03:52Well let's get more on that by speaking to Sir Doug Turnbull, one of the Newcastle team of scientists who

04:00led the trial. A really significant moment for you I'm sure. Just tell us how you're feeling about this

04:06and what this means. Well I'm thrilled about it. I've been looking after patients with mitochondrial

04:12disease for the best part of 40 years and there is no cure for mitochondrial disease. So being able to

04:19potentially prevent transmission of this, what can be a devastating disease as was shown in James

04:25Gallagher's piece, is a major breakthrough for the families.

04:30And what are the families saying? What's their feedback and feelings as well?

04:37One of joy, one of relief. I think for those families where this technique has been successful,

04:45it obviously completely changes things. These mothers know that they're at major risk of

04:52passing on serious mitochondrial disease to their children. So their reproductive options are very

04:58limited indeed and this technique allows them to have another reproductive option. I mean the paper

05:05shows that eight babies have been born. The evidence is that none of them will develop mitochondrial

05:13disease and the evidence is they're all developing normally. So for those families, as James has

05:21quoted one of the families, it's really been life-changing.

05:25Okay, thank you very much for sharing a little bit more on that really groundbreaking development there.

05:32That's Dr Sir Doug Turnbull, I should say, one of the Newcastle team of scientists who led that trial.

Babies from three people’s DNA prevents hereditary disease | BBC News

Category

Transcript

Recommended