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PETBioNewsNewsScientists warn of potential mitochondrial replacement IVF health risks

BioNews

Scientists warn of potential mitochondrial replacement IVF health risks

Published 23 September 2013 posted in News and appears in BioNews 723

Author

Dr Rosie Morley

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.

A group of scientists has expressed concerns that it may be too soon to bring mitochondrial replacement techniques, which are still under development, to the clinic....

A group of scientists has expressed concerns that it may be too soon to bring mitochondrial replacement (MR) techniques, which are still under development, to the clinic. This follows the recent news that the UK Government will support the introduction of mitochondrial replacement therapy, with the relevant legislation due to be debated in Parliament next year (reported in BioNews 711).

In an article published in the journal Science, three biologists argued that while the availability of MR-assisted therapies is an 'exciting prospect', more time is needed to better understand the techniques in animals before moving on to clinical trials. They explain that there are extensive interactions between mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA, and that using donor mitochondria may have long-term consequences that are not yet understood.

'We draw attention to theory and experimental findings that appear to have been overlooked in the scientific and public forums of this debate', the authors wrote in the paper. 'Studies on model organisms, ranging from mice to fruit flies, indicate that MR can profoundly change the expression profiles of nuclear genes and affect a range of important traits such as individual development, cognitive behaviour, and key health parameters'.

MR-assisted IVF has successfully given rise to live offspring in macaque monkeys, but these offspring have not yet reached adulthood. The authors suggest further monitoring the health and fertility of these monkeys.

Klaus Reinhardt of the University of Tuebingen, Germany, lead author of the article, said: 'It is not at all our intention to be a roadblock, we think it is fantastic that for women affected there could be a cure. We are sure that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will decide [whether to allow the therapy] on a case-by-case basis and will have safeguards. But couples that have mild mitochondrial disease might choose to wait two years until the macaques are a bit more mature'.

MR involves taking the nuclear material out of a prospective mother's egg (thereby leaving behind the faulty mitochondria) and placing this nuclear material into a donor egg which has healthy mitochondria. MR could be used to treat mothers at risk of passing on faulty mitochondria to their children, as this can lead to complex and sometimes fatal mitochondrial disease.

The HFEA, which ran a public consultation in 2012 gathering evidence on the techniques and advised the Government on the evidence surrounding mitochondrial replacement therapy, has said that there is at present no reason to believe the techniques are unsafe.

In a statement, the HFEA said: 'The panel of experts convened by the HFEA to examine the safety and efficacy of mitochondria replacement carefully considered the interaction between nuclear and mitochondrial DNA and concluded that the evidence did not show cause for concern'.

Professor Doug Turnbull, from the mitochondrial research group at Newcastle University shares the HFEA's position. 'One of our prime interests is about the safety of these techniques,' he said. 'Mismatch between the mitochondrial and nuclear genome is a potential risk, but I don't think it's personally as big a risk as they're saying'.

David Thornburn, head of mitochondrial research at Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia said in the New Scientist: 'In a black and white, risk-averse, litigation-averse world it's tempting to say let's wait and first do no harm'.

'To me, that ignores the daily lives and desires of these families', he added.

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Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
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30 March 2016 • 3 minutes read

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Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
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Two experimental IVF techniques that could prevent certain types of incurable genetic disease are 'not unsafe', a report from the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has found....

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
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Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Comment
6 January 2014 • 4 minutes read

Should persons affected by mitochondrial disorders not be brought into existence?

by Dr Calum MacKellar

Mitochondrial replacement techniques are not a form of therapy in which a person is being treated or cured for a disorder, but instead make sure that that certain persons are not brought into existence. This is a crucial difference since it then questions the equality in value and worth of every possible future person...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
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2 December 2013 • 5 minutes read

Is mitochondrial replacement therapy eugenic and incompatible with human dignity?

by Dr John Appleby and 2 others

A group of European parliamentarians from the Council of Europe recently issued a declaration objecting to the HFEA's policy advice on experimental mitochondrial replacement therapy claiming that MRT is eugenic and inconsistent with human dignity. These are substantial moral claims, ones that deserve closer scrutiny, and it is an interesting and important exercise to consider how successful such arguments are...

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
News
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PET BioNews
News
21 March 2013 • 2 minutes read

Public in favour of allowing mitochondrial replacement, says UK regulator

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Mitochondrial replacement therapy, where a small amount of a mother's genetic material is swapped with material from a donor during IVF to avoid passing on heritable illnesses, enjoys the 'general support' of the public, the UK's fertility regulator says...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
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Scientists have successfully created human embryos containing donated mitochondrial DNA in an effort to stop children inheriting life-threatening diseases...

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
CC0 1.0
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Comment
19 October 2012 • 3 minutes read

Preventing mitochondrial disease: What about the patients?

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Techniques for the prevention of mitochondrial disease have attracted intense speculation, controversy and excitement...

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