How can we avoid hereditary diseases?
According to the scientific journal "Nature", scientists have managed to use gene correction techniques for the first time to stop inherited heart disease in the early stages of human embryos.
Scientists have succeeded for the first time in using gene-editing techniques to stop inherited heart disease in the early stages of human embryos, according to a study.
The research will serve to reduce the incidence of this disease in children conceived through IVF (In Vitro Fertilization - a procedure that involves ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval and embryo transfer, to help people with fertility problems have a child - translator's note) and pave the way for the cure of some of the thousands of diseases caused by mutations in single genes.
Scientists discovered a mutation in a gene that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which was the most common cause of sudden death in healthy young athletes.
According to the scientific journal, this was a collaborative project between the Salk Institute in California, Oregon Health, Science University, and the Korea Institute for Basic Sciences.
Scientists generated stem cells from a skin biopsy donated by a person with HCM and modified them using the gene-editing technique CRISPR, which enables genomes to easily undergo precise changes in affiliation.
Using the IVF technique, scientists fertilized healthy donor eggs with HCM donor sperm and injected the eggs with the best gene components.
The embryos were only allowed to grow for a few days and were not predestined for transplantation.
Overall, HCM may affect one in 500 people, and individuals with a faulty copy of the gene have a 50 percent chance of passing the mutation on to their children.
Correcting the mutation in embryos would prevent the transmission of the disease to future generations.
Despite advances in stem cell technology and gene editing, scientists must continue their research very carefully to avoid introducing unwanted mutations into the cells that ultimately become eggs or sperm.
"The study was conducted in full compliance with the ethical guidelines for human genome editing issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine," said Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from the Salk Institute.
