‘To know that there could be a way of making sure your child doesn’t get that bad gene would mean a lot’
THE mum of a boy born with a genetic disease has welcomed a landmark scientific breakthrough that could lead to inherited conditions being wiped out.
Scientists in the US achieved a world first when they successfully edited defective DNA in human embryos so they were no longer programmed to develop heart failure.
It is the first time the powerful gene-editing tool Crispr-Cas9 has been used to fix a mutation responsible for a common inherited disease.
The highly controversial technique is still at an early experimental stage and there is no question of any attempt being made to create babies with the genetic modification, which would be illegal both in the US and the UK.
It could one day lead to the eradicating of genetic diseases such as those suffered by Newcastle youngster Taylor Davison. Taylor, from West Denton, was dubbed the ‘mystery boy’ when he started showing symptoms of devastating mitochondrial disease, which is passed onto a child if both parents carry the mutated genes. It was later revealed the twoyear-old was suffering from another genetic condition which mimics mitochondrial disease and after receiving treatment he is once again healthy. Taylor’s mum Stephanie Rossiter, 24, has welcomed the scientific breakthrough. She said: “It’s definitely a good idea. If you think of Charlie Gard, if his parents had the opportunity to know there was a chance he had mitochondrial disease, which has no treatment and no cure, what are they going to do? Give birth to a baby with next to no life, or get treated and do something to take away all that horrible stuff – what are you going to choose? “People do not understand and never will unless they have been through it themselves. When we found out Taylor might have had mitochondrial disease, it tore our heart out. But we got that miracle that he was not going to die and he was going to live.
“If the treatment was available, it’s something I would do.”
When he was 16 months old, Taylor showed all the symptoms of the devastating mitochondrial disease - which recently hit the headlines in the case of tragic Charlie Gard.
Almost overnight he went a happy little boy from being unable to hold himself up, leaving Stephanie and partner Steven, 26, fearing the worst.
But it has now been revealed Taylor has Biotinidase deficiency, a genetic condition which mimics the affects of mitochondrial disease.
After being given the correct treatment, he is back to being a healthy youngster.
Stephanie said: “He has a completely different personality from a year ago, when he was so poorly. Now he is running around, knows his colours and animals and we are so lucky to have him like this. If he was still poorly he would have been in a wheelchair so we are over the moon to have him like this.”
As it stands, there is no question of any attempt being made to create babies with the genetic modification, which would be illegal in the UK. But scientists are not ruling it out in the future.
Stephanie added: “To know that there could be a way of making sure your child doesn’t get that bad gene would mean a lot. It could mean a lot of families not going through the traumas we went through.”