A woman who will develop Alzheimer's disease at an early age has given birth to a baby that will never develop the disease. The mother is a carrier of an inherited genetic mutation which predisposes her to early-onset Alzheimer's. Scientists in Chicago used PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis ) to screen embryos produced by IVF so that they could select and implant an embryo which had not inherited the genetic fault.
The team, from the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago, reported the case in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week. Dr Yury Verlinsky, leader of the research team, said 'this is the first known PGD procedure for inherited early-onset AD (Alzheimer's disease) resulting in a clinical pregnancy and birth of a child free of an inherited predisposition to early-onset AD'.
The mother had a 50 per cent chance of passing on the mutated gene, known as V717L. The woman, who has not been named, is 30 years old, but is expected to develop Alzheimer's by the time she is 40. Members of her family have been similarly affected.
The case has attracted some criticism: a commentary accompanying Verlinsky's article said that because the mother will 'most likely not to be able to care for or even recognise her child in a few years', some may consider that the technology has been put to the wrong use.
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