The selection of healthy embryos in couples with genetic problems to avoid transmitting hereditary diseases to their children is now possible in the Islands thanks to the implementation of the company Sistemas Genómicos Canarias, which also allows the performance of genetic diagnoses to establish the probabilities of suffering certain pathologies such as Alzheimer's, cancer, mental retardation or rare diseases among many others.
The manager of the company, Pedro Alberto Pérez-Andreu and Dr. Xavier Vendrell have been in charge of presenting this new initiative, a pioneer in the Archipelago, at the College of Physicians of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which also aims to centralize a service that until now was very dispersed.
Diagnosis and prevention
Sistemas Genómicos Canarias will carry out two types of approaches: diagnoses of patients who want to know their genetic map and therefore the possibilities of suffering or transmitting certain pathologies; or couples who want to have healthy children through embryonic selection techniques to avoid transmitting these diseases.
Vendrell explained that genetic analyzes of common diseases can be done to patients without a specific history of hereditary diseases, but says that it has little clinical value. However, he assures that today it is possible to sequence complete human genomes in weeks, which could lead to "everyone wanting to know their genetic map" in the future. However, according to the doctor, "it is usually more common for couples who have suspicions of diseases and they usually work with diagnosed diseases".
Within this line would be a second group: those couples who have an affected child who needs to have transplants to be cured. In these cases, embryos can be generated in the laboratory that allow selecting one compatible with the sick child extracting stem cells from the umbilical cord of the new brother that can be transplanted to the affected brother.
Between 200 and 300 euros
The cost, according to Dr. Vendrell, depends fundamentally on the disease and the type of mutation since there are mutations that are very easy to find and whose price would range between 200 and 300 euros. But there are others that require more complex processes and the cost is higher because a therapy is involved.
The percentage of success of these techniques, however, is still very low, as the doctor himself acknowledged. "If we detect the mutation, which is the first phase, we manage success rates, understanding this as pregnancy and birth of healthy children, of 30 percent of the people who resort to these techniques," he said.
The fact that the success rate is low lies in the fact that some couples may have many affected embryos and have less chance that none will be healthy, in addition to the limitations that assisted reproduction has in itself, since not all women get pregnant.
Respecting current legislation
Regarding the ethical debate that this may raise, Vendrell acknowledges that it exists since these diseases exist, but nevertheless makes it clear that all techniques are carried out respecting current legislation and, nevertheless, clarifies that they serve to prevent and cure diseases, not to select the color of the eyes or hair.
Although they recognize that no specific studies have yet been carried out on the Canarian population, they do admit that there is a certain demand for diseases such as Marfan syndrome (which causes vascular problems) or congenital heart disease. In addition, there are also those common to the population in general, common diseases such as Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis since it seems that one in twenty people are carriers of a mutation of this disease.
Contacts with the Canarian Government
The first contacts made by the company have been in the professional field, of advice, although a line of contacts has also been opened with the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands for possible collaborations in this area, according to the manager of the company, Pedro Alberto. In this regard, Dr. Vendrell recalls that there are already agreements in the Peninsula with public hospitals for the genetic treatment of certain diseases.
Among the problems that the company will address are pregnancy planning, fertility disorders, congenital malformations, mental retardation, heart disease, rare diseases, hereditary cancer, Alzheimer's, obesity, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, celiac disease and paternity testing.
