第1822期:Babies Born in Britain Using Genetic Material from Three People

For the first time, a new process that uses the genetic material of three people has resulted in the birth of several babies in Britain. The experimental process has been used before in Mexico and the United States. Britain’s fertility regulator said Wednesday that the parents used a process which was approved with some restrictions in 2015. The story was first reported by The Guardian newspaper. Britain’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said only that fewer than five babies were born as a result of the process. The treatment is supposed to prevent the babies from inheriting rare genetic diseases.

第一次，使用三个人的遗传物质的新过程在英国诞生了几个婴儿。该实验过程以前曾在墨西哥和美国使用过。英国生育监管机构周三表示，这对父母使用了一种在 2015 年获得批准但有一些限制的程序。这个故事最先由《卫报》报道。英国人类受精和胚胎学管理局表示，只有不到 5 名婴儿因此出生。这种治疗应该可以防止婴儿遗传罕见的遗传病。

The treatment of combining DNA from a mother, father and an egg donor is supposed to help women who have a genetic problem that can be passed to their babies. The problem is in the mitochondria of some women. Mitochondria are parts of some cells in the body that provide energy. However, scientists say the mitochondria in some women can pass genetic problems on to their babies. The genetic defects can cause muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, heart problems and intellectual disabilities. Experts say the genetic problems affect about one in 200 children born in Britain. So far, 32 patients have been given permission to receive the treatment. The process involves doctors taking genetic material from the mother’s egg and then adding it to a donor’s egg. The donor’s egg has healthy mitochondria, but doctors remove the rest of its important DNA. Doctors fertilize the new egg, so it becomes an embryo and they put it into the mother’s womb.

结合来自母亲、父亲和卵子捐赠者的 DNA 的治疗应该可以帮助患有可遗传给婴儿的遗传问题的女性。问题出在一些女性的线粒体中。线粒体是体内某些提供能量的细胞的一部分。然而，科学家们表示，一些女性体内的线粒体可以将遗传问题遗传给她们的婴儿。遗传缺陷会导致肌肉萎缩症、癫痫、心脏病和智力障碍。专家说，遗传问题影响了大约每 200 个在英国出生的孩子中的一个。到目前为止，已有 32 名患者获准接受治疗。该过程涉及医生从母亲的卵子中提取遗传物质，然后将其添加到捐赠者的卵子中。捐献者的卵子具有健康的线粒体，但医生会去除其其余的重要 DNA。医生使新卵子受精，使其成为胚胎，然后将其放入母亲的子宫中。

Scientists say using this process results in the new embryo having less than one percent of the genetic material from the egg’s donor. Scientists at England’s Newcastle University supervised the treatment. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said Tuesday that it was still “early days” of the treatment. But the government body said it hoped the doctors and scientists who worked on the treatment would soon publish more information. The agency said all women undergoing the treatment must receive approval and must have no other way of preventing disease.

科学家们说，使用这个过程会导致新胚胎中只有不到 1% 的来自卵子捐赠者的遗传物质。英国纽卡斯尔大学的科学家监督了治疗。人类受精和胚胎学管理局周二表示，治疗仍处于“早期阶段”。但政府机构表示，希望从事这种治疗的医生和科学家能尽快公布更多信息。该机构表示，所有接受治疗的女性都必须获得批准，并且必须没有其他预防疾病的方法。

There are many critics of the treatment. They say there are other ways to prevent disease and the treatment has not been fully tested. Others say this is the first step in creating “designer” babies for parents who want their children to be taller, smarter or have different looks than they do. Robin Lovell-Badge is a stem cell expert at the Francis Crick Institute, a research center in London. Lovell-Badge said the babies need to be followed well into the future.

对这种治疗有很多批评。他们说还有其他方法可以预防疾病，而且治疗方法还没有经过全面测试。其他人说，这是为希望自己的孩子更高、更聪明或长得与自己不同的父母创造“设计师”婴儿的第一步。 Robin Lovell-Badge 是伦敦研究中心 Francis Crick Institute 的干细胞专家。 Lovell-Badge 说这些婴儿需要在未来得到很好的跟踪。

“It will be interesting to know,” he said, “how well the technique worked…whether the babies are free of disease and whether there is any risk of them developing problems later in life.” One group of scientists published research this year expressing concerns that even a small amount of the problematic DNA from the mother could reproduce as the baby develops in the uterus. Lovell-Badge said scientists do not understand exactly why this happens and more work needs to be done.

“知道这项技术的效果如何，”他说，“这将很有趣……婴儿是否没有疾病，以及他们在以后的生活中是否有出现问题的风险。”一组科学家今年发表了一项研究，他们担心随着婴儿在子宫中的发育，即使是来自母亲的少量有问题的 DNA 也会繁殖。 Lovell-Badge 说，科学家们不明白为什么会发生这种情况，需要做更多的工作。