Deutsche Welle, 8 July 2013
Scientists meeting in London have announced the birth of the first baby to come from a new IVF technique that screens embryos for genetic defects. It is hoped the method could improve the low overall IVF success rate.
Scientists meeting in London have announced the birth of the first baby to come from a new IVF technique that screens embryos for genetic defects. It is hoped the method could improve the low overall IVF success rate.
The baby
boy was born in June in the US state of Pennsylvania, with a second woman who
underwent the screening process due to give birth shortly.
The
technique, known as next generation sequencing or NGS, uses low-cost modern DNA
sequencing to reveal inherited genetic disorders, chromosome abnormalities,
defects and mutations, before the embryo is implanted into the womb.
In-vitro
fertilization, when eggs are fertilized with sperm in a laboratory, has a
relatively low pregnancy success rate after implantation - around 30 percent.
While it's not known why the failure rate is so high, genetic defects are high
on the list of suspects, according to the authors of research being presented
on Monday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction
and Embryology (ESHRE).
"Many
of the embryos produced during infertility treatments have no chance of
becoming a baby because they carry lethal genetic abnormalities," said
study author Dagan Wells, from the University of Oxford's NIHR Biomedical
Research Center.
"Next
generation sequencing improves our ability to detect these abnormalities and
helps us identify the embryos with the best chances of producing a viable
pregnancy," Wells said.
ESHRE says
one in six couples worldwide experience some form of infertility problem at
least once in their lifetime.
In
addition, the new technique could be significantly cheaper than current
technology and yield more genetic data than older methods.
"We
can do this at a cost which is about a half to two-thirds of what current
chromosome screening costs are," said Wells.
"If
further randomized trials confirm this, we could reach a point where there is a
very strong economic argument that this should be offered very widely - perhaps
to the majority of IVF patients."
According
to Wells, the method has started to be used in genetic research and
diagnostics, but not in embryo screening.
He said
that current methods to detect gene deficiencies in embryos added more than
£2,000 (2,300 euros, $3,000) to a single IVF attempt.
"The
new method should allow costs to be reduced by several hundred pounds,
potentially bringing the benefits of chromosome screening within the reach of a
far greater number of patients," said Wells, describing how he tested the
technique on an "abnormally high" number of embryos until he was
satisfied of a high level of accuracy.
A
randomized clinical trial is due to begin later this year to determine the
technique's efficacy.
jr/ccp (Reuters, AFP)
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