What is a "baby medicine"?

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A "baby medicine", also known as brother savior, is a child born with assisted reproduction techniques to be genetically compatible with his sick brother, with the aim of providing a transplant that will not be rejected and able to cure it.

This raises a great controversy in society and also in the scientific field. While there are numerous associations of serious diseases such as beta-thalassemia or Fanconi anemia that defend this procedure, other ethical groups or Catholic groups are firmly against it.

Despite this, in Spain there are already several cases of couples who have had one child to save another.

Below you have an index with all the points that we will discuss in this article.

Index

What is a "baby medicine"? - Indications and real cases

Indications

The birth of a baby medication is one of the valid options that parents have to cure another child affected by a serious disease, whether congenital or acquired, that requires a transplant of hematopoietic stem cells (precursors of blood cells).

In the case of congenital diseases (the baby is already born sick), especially those due to the mutation of a single gene that are usually inherited from one of the parents stand out:

  • Beta-thalassemia
  • Fanconi anemia
  • Diamond-Blackfan anemia

On the other hand, the saving brother can also be conceived with the objective of treating a leukemia. In this case, since it is not a genetic disease, only siblings are required to be compatible in order to do the transplant without risk of rejection.

Baby who can save his brother with a stem cell transplant

Depending on each particular case, the transplant of blood cells can be done from the umbilical cord at the time of birth of the baby medication or, if this is not possible, it would be necessary to wait for the best time to be able to do a standard bone marrow transplant .





What is HLA typing?

Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) are proteins that are found on the surface of almost every cell in the human body and, in large quantities, on the surface of white blood cells.

The function of the HLA system consists in the immunological recognition, that is, it allows the cells of the immune system to differentiate between the own tissues and the substances foreign to the body.

Thanks to the discovery of the HLA system in the 70s, it was possible to optimize the transplants of cells, tissues or organs, so that it has been possible to reduce the risk of rejection to a great extent.

The HLA typing consists of a genetic analysis to determine which are histocompatibility antigens characteristic of each individual or, in the case at hand, of each embryo candidate to be transferred to become a baby drug.

Questions from users


pgd - preimplantation genetic diagnosis in Malaga(Spain)

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