{"id":35358,"date":"2023-05-14T05:49:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T00:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=35358"},"modified":"2025-04-21T05:58:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T00:28:36","slug":"mitochondrial-replacement-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mitochondrial-replacement-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About Mitochondria<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy (MRT)?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Is MRT Procedure Risk-Free?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Legality of MRT<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In the United Kingdom, the first baby has been created with DNA from three people has been born after doctors performed a ground-breaking IVF procedure.<\/li>\n<li>Earlier, in 2016, the UK became the first country in the world to legalise three-parent babies after its fertility regulator, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) had approved the process.<\/li>\n<li>The process is known as <strong><u>Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy (MRT)<\/u><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>About Mitochondria<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mitochondria are double-membraned cellular organelle, which are crucial for generating energy.<\/li>\n<li>They, but what really makes them unique is that they divide independently of the cell.<\/li>\n<li>They are responsible for cell function in the human body.<\/li>\n<li>Certain defects might occur impacting on the way the mitochondria produces energy for the cells (Specially in the \u2018energy-hungry\u2019 tissues of the brain, nerves, muscles, kidneys, heart, liver), and thereby impacting cell function.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong><u>diseases that arise out of such mitochondrial mutations are called mitochondrial diseases<\/u><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>When the mitochondria are impaired and do not produce sufficient energy, that affects how the organs function, leading to a broad assortment of symptoms across the body, including brain damage, organ failure and muscle wastage.<\/li>\n<li>Mitochondria makes up less than 0.0005% of our entire DNA. But <strong><u>since the child receives it only from the mother, any aberrations in her mitochondrial DNA that may cause diseases is passed on completely to the child<\/u><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>According to the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute, <strong><u>approximately 1 in 5,000-10,000 children are born each year with mitochondrial disease<\/u><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy (MRT)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/05\/16\/image-20230516090345-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) is a new form of reproductive invitro fertilization (IVF) which <strong><u>works on the principle of replacing a women&#8217;s abnormal mitochondrial DNA (mt-DNA) with the donor&#8217;s healthy one<\/u><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Step-by-Step Process \u2013\n<ul>\n<li>First, sperm from the father is used to fertilise eggs from the affected mother and a healthy female donor.<\/li>\n<li>The nuclear genetic material from the donor\u2019s egg is then removed and replaced with that from the couple\u2019s fertilised egg.<\/li>\n<li>The resulting egg has a full set of chromosomes from both parents, but carries the donor\u2019s healthy mitochondria instead of the mother\u2019s faulty ones.<\/li>\n<li>This is then implanted in the womb.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The resulting baby has DNA from the mother and father as usual, plus a small amount of genetic material \u2013 about 37 genes \u2013 from the donor.<\/li>\n<li>The process has led to the phrase \u201c<i><strong>three-parent babies<\/strong><\/i>\u201d, though more than 99.8% of the DNA in the babies comes from the mother and father.<\/li>\n<li>The development of healthy baby free from genetic disorders and to terminate the lethal mitochondrial disorders are the chief motive of this technique.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Is MRT Procedure Risk-Free?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The procedure is not without risks.<\/li>\n<li>Recent research has found that in some cases, the <strong><u>tiny number of abnormal mitochondria that are inevitably carried over from the mother\u2019s egg to the donor egg can multiply when the baby is in the womb<\/u><\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>So-called reversion or reversal could lead to a disease in the child.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>So far, the clinical experience with MRT has been encouraging, but the number of reported cases is far too small to draw any definitive conclusions about the safety or efficacy.<\/li>\n<li>Long-term follow-up of the children born through MRT is essential.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Legality of MRT<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>United Kingdom<\/strong>, in 2016, became the first country in the world to legalise MRT.<\/li>\n<li>Last year, <strong>Australia<\/strong> became the second country to approve this therapy.<\/li>\n<li>In the <strong>United States<\/strong>, the therapy is illegal as it is considered as a form of genetic modification, and changes made to eggs, and sperm and embryos \u2014 known as germline modification \u2014 can be passed on to future generations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is a chromosome in the human body?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Chromosomes are structures found in the centre (nucleus) of cells that carry long pieces of DNA. DNA is the material that holds genes. It is the building block of the human body. Chromosomes also contain proteins that help DNA exist in the proper form.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What is the role of X and Y chromosomes?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Individuals having two X chromosomes (<strong>XX<\/strong>) are <strong>female<\/strong>; individuals having one X chromosome and one Y chromosome (<strong>XY<\/strong>) are <strong>male<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/uk-sees-success-in-mitochondrial-replacement-therapy\/article66845829.ece#:~:text=Premium,-May%2013%2C%202023&amp;text=Eight%20years%20after%20the%20U.K.,procedure%2C%20as%20of%20April%202023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>U.K. sees success in mitochondrial replacement therapy<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/health\/babys-got-three-parents-explaining-mitochondrial-donation-treatment\/article66841615.ece#:~:text=The%20baby%20has%20three%20parents,inheriting%20the%20mother&#039;s%20mitochondrial%20disease\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Hindu<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2023\/may\/09\/first-uk-baby-with-dna-from-three-people-born-after-new-ivf-procedure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Guardian<\/u><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mitochondria are double-membraned cellular organelle, which are crucial for generating energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}