Mitochondrial disease,or “mito”,is the name for a group of disorders that occur when faulty mitochondria fail to produce energy in the body’s cells as they should.
“Some people can live into adult life with them and have relatively mild symptoms,” Dr Freelander said. “But the childhood-onset disorders are often very quickly progressive,severe,and they lead to severe disability,recurrent episodes of severe illness and eventual death.”
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Mitochondrial disease is rare but for those born with it there is no cure as it affects every cell in the body.
“You can’t repair every single cell and there are no drugs that you can use to treat it,” Dr Allen said.
The only option to prevent it is mitochondrial donation. It works by replacing the mother’s faulty mitochondrial gene in an egg cell,with a working mitochondrial gene from a donor egg.
Dr Allen,who also trained in genetics at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and has represented the Melbourne seat of Higgins since the 2019 election,likened it to a “tiny organ transplant” into the egg.
“That[donor] DNA material only codes for the energy supply,not for other characteristics or traits,not for the colour of your eyes or the colour of your hair,” she said.
This “transformative IVF technology”,as Dr Allen calls it,cannot currently be used because it requires changes to two pieces of legislation.
‘It gives the families hope and that’s really important.’
Dr Mike Freelander
“Our government recognises that the introduction of this technology in Australia is complex and it will require an appropriate regulatory framework,medical safeguards and,in the longer term,the support of state and territory governments,” the spokeswoman said.
Dr Allen said if it passed through Parliament,changes would be made “in a cautious way”.
“The first step is to make sure that it’s done only in clinical trial supervision,see how it goes,make sure that everyone is aware of what any potential complications might be and then reassess it before it goes to the second step,” she said.
Dr Freelander,who won the south-western Sydney seat of Macarthur in 2016,said these changes had been discussed for “a long time”.
“It gives the families hope and that’s really important,” he said.
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