In search of: Suggesting a course of action for the scientific community to research potential impacts of heritable gene editing on the maternal carrier

Abstract

Prospective parents with a high risk of transmission of a disease-causing mutation may want to have an unaffected genetically related child. With advances in scientific technologies, including CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), they may be able to do so through heritable gene editing of the human germline at the pre-implantation stage. CRISPR technology in the reproduction and fertility context could potentially correct mutations in the germline, allow for the production of embryos that are free from a mutation and terminate the transmission of a disease-causing mutation from parent to child. As reproductive technologies evolve, a gap in the available literature exists that fails to address the potential impacts of edited fetal DNA on the maternal carrier. Both critical technical issues related to employing CRISPR, and germline editing based technologies in human reproduction and long-term impacts need to be studied and clarified to ensure positive application and outcomes for both offspring and mother.

Keywords: CRISPR; germline editing; heritable gene editing; maternal-fetal transgenerational microchimerism.