Scientists create ‘three parent’ embryo
Scientists from Newcastle University, UK led by Professor Patrick Chinnery, have created an embryo with three separate parents. The team believe the technique could help to eradicate a whole class of hereditary diseases, including some forms of epilepsy and ensure women with genetic defects do not pass the diseases on to their children.
Ten severely deformed embryos, left over from traditional fertility treatment were created using DNA from a man and two women in lab tests. Within hours of their creation, the nucleus, containing DNA from the mother and father, was removed from the embryo, and implanted into a donor egg whose DNA had been largely removed.
The only genetic information remaining from the donor egg was the tiny bit that controls production of mitochondria - around 16,000 of the 3billion component parts that make up the human genome. The embryos then began to develop normally, but were destroyed within six days.
The technique is intended to help women with diseases of the mitochondria - mini-organs that are found within individual cells which are sometimes described as “cellular power plants” because they generate most of the cell’s energy. Faults in the mitochondrial DNA can cause around 50 known diseases, some of which lead to disability and death.
About one in every 6,500 people is affected by such conditions, which include fatal liver failure, stroke-like episodes, blindness, muscular dystrophy, diabetes and deafness. At present, no treatment for mitochondrial diseases exists.
Elaine Warburton www.geneticsandhealth.com
