Latest news with #medicaltrial
CBS News
5 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
8 babies born with DNA from 3 people in world-first IVF trial aimed at minimizing risk of inherited disease
Eight healthy babies have been born in the U.K. using a new IVF technique that successfully reduced their risk of inheriting genetic diseases from their mothers, the people behind a world-first trial said Wednesday. The findings were hailed as a breakthrough, which raises hopes that women with mutations in their mitochondrial DNA could one day have children without passing debilitating or deadly diseases on to the children. One out of every 5,000 births is affected by mitochondrial diseases, which cannot be treated, and include symptoms such as impaired vision, diabetes and muscle wasting. In 2015, Britain became the first country to approve an in-vitro fertilization technique that uses a small amount of healthy mitochondrial DNA from the egg of a donor — along with the mother's egg and father's sperm. Some have called the result of this process "three-parent babies," though researchers have pushed back at this term because only roughly 0.1% of the newborn's DNA comes from the donor. The results of the much-awaited U.K. trial were published in several papers in the New England Journal of Medicine. Out of 22 women to undergo the treatment at the Newcastle Fertility Centre in northeast England, eight babies were born. The four boys and four girls now range from under 6 months to over 2 years old. The amount of mutated mitochondrial DNA — which causes disease — was reduced by 95-100% in six of the babies, according to the research. For the other two newborns, the amount fell by 77-88%, which is still below the range that causes disease. This indicates the technique was "effective in reducing transmission" of diseases between mother and child, one of the studies said. The eight children are currently healthy, though one had a disturbance of their heart's rhythm which was successfully treated, the researchers said. Their health will be followed up over the coming years to see if problems arise. Oxford University reproductive genetics expert Dagan Wells noted that among the eight children, three have shown some signs of what is known as "reversal," which is still little understood. It is "a phenomenon where the therapy initially succeeds in producing an embryo with very few defective mitochondria, but by the time the child is born the proportion of abnormal mitochondria in its cells has significantly increased," he explained. Nevertheless, Nils-Goran Larsson, a Swedish reproductive expert not involved in the research, hailed it as a "breakthrough." The new technique offers a "very important reproductive option" for families affected by "devastating" mitochondrial diseases, he added. While the U.K. trial is the first to involve multiple mothers, the eight babies born to them are not the first to be born with DNA from three people. That first came in 2016, after a woman was treated by U.S. fertility specialists in Mexico, where there were no laws regulating the practice. A similar IVF method was used in that groundbreaking case. Mitochondrial donation remains controversial and has not been approved in many countries, including the United States and France. Religious leaders have opposed the procedure because it involves the destruction of human embryos. Other opponents have expressed fears it could pave the way for genetically engineered "designer babies." An ethical review carried out by the U.K.'s independent Nuffield Council on Bioethics was "instrumental" in conducting the new research, the council's director Danielle Hamm said Wednesday. Peter Thompson, head of the U.K.'s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which approved the procedure, said only people with a "very high risk" of passing on a mitochondrial disease would be eligible for the treatment. Ethical concerns have also been raised over the use of mitochondrial donation for infertility in Greece and Ukraine. French mitochondrial disease specialist Julie Steffann told AFP that "it is a question of the risk-benefit ratio: for a mitochondrial disease, the benefit is obvious." "In the context of infertility, it has not been proven," she added.
Japan Times
5 days ago
- Health
- Japan Times
World-first IVF trial reduces risk of babies inheriting diseases
Eight healthy babies have been born in the U.K. using a new IVF technique that successfully reduced their risk of inheriting genetic diseases from their mothers, the results of a world-first trial said Wednesday. The findings were hailed as a breakthrough, raising hopes that women with mutations in their mitochondrial DNA could one day have children without passing debilitating or deadly diseases on to the children. One out of every 5,000 births is affected by mitochondrial diseases, which cannot be treated, and include symptoms such as impaired vision, diabetes and muscle wasting.
Irish Times
07-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Consultant had serious concerns infant suffered brain damage after finding brain bleeds, court hears
Doctors were seriously concerned that a baby girl may have suffered brain damage, after scans showed that she had suffered bleeds in her brain when she was brought to hospital by her parents in a lethargic and drowsy state, a trial has heard, Consultant paediatrician, Dr Rosina McGovern said that doctors at Cork University Hospital were extremely concerned when an CAT scan on the child's brain showed that the five and a half month old little girl had suffered a thrombosis or blood clot between her skull and her brain. This subdural haemorrhage was evidence of a searing or tearing of tissues connecting the right and left sides of her brain, caused a back and forth acceleration and deceleration and is associated with abusive head trauma, said Dr McGovern. Dr McGovern was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of a 31 year old man, who can't be named to protect the identity of his daughter, but who is charged with three offences relating the care of the infant at their family home between November 25th, 2020, and January 4th, 2021. READ MORE The man denies causing serious harm to the child on January 4th, 2021, and denies assault causing harm to the child between November 25th and December 15th 2020. He also denies that he wilfully assaulted or ill-treated the child. Dr McGovern told the jury of five men and seven women hearing the case at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the child's parents brought her to Cork University Hospital at 9pm on January 4th following a visit to South Doc, after the child had been vomiting for eight hours. The child had no history of trauma or falls but presented with a number of different colour bruises on her face, cheek, stomach, abdomen and right buttock as and abrasions on her left temporal area, her cheek and her nose. Her parents offered no explanation for either. 'She was lethargic, and she couldn't smile or wasn't vocalising which you would expect in a five month old, and there was concern that she might have suffered some brain dysfunction,' said Dr McGovern. There was also concern over the child's inability to lie on her belly. The fact that she only lay on her back and the fact that was using only her right arm was concerning, because young infants do not have one predominant arm, and both aspects of her behaviour again raised concern that she might have suffered some brain injury. An MRI scan revealed evidence of bruising and a collection of blood in the soft tissue between the epidural membrane, which protects the spinal cord and the bone, and this extended from the infant's neck down to just above her hips, she said. She said an X-ray revealed the child had suffered a broken collar bone, which was a very unusual in a five month old as they are not mobile. She also ruled out such an injury resulting from a fall from a table or changing mat, as she had never seen that happen. She said she believed the child's injuries constituted serious harm. Cross-examined by defence counsel, Ray Boland SC, Dr McGovern agreed the child's condition improved after treatment and she was no longer lethargic after January 8th 2021. She was behaving as a five month old would be expected to behave when discharged from CUH on January 18th. Earlier the jury heard evidence from staff at the creche which the child was attending and how they noticed a bruise on the child's left cheek on December 15th 2020. When they raised it with the child's mother, she brushed it off and said, 'That's a thing of nothing.' The case continues.
