SAVIOUR SIBLING PROGRAMME (SSP) A New Lifeline – A Brand New Hope
Couples with autosomal dominant or recessive disorders have a
significant chance of conceiving a pregnancy that has serious genetic
consequences. Beta thalassaemia is one such disorder that is endemic in
Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
Thalassaemia, in general, constitutes a public health problem in
Malaysia. It is estimated that 350 babies are born each year in this
country with blood transfusion dependent thalassaemia major. This number
will cumulatively increase each year posing enormous social and
economic hardships not only to patients and families but also to the
government in ensuring optimal care for the existing population of
thalassaemia major.
Most of the thalassaemia major patients succumb to a miserable,
depressing and painful existence. Their lives are centred around the
hospital environments. Regular blood transfusion, transfusion
transmitted illnesses, iron overload, general debility and ill-health
mar their lives. Loss of education, employment, depression and despair
add to their miseries.
Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) from a healthy HLA-compatible
marrow donor or
cord blood,
preferably from a sibling, maybe the best treatment option or the only
potential cure for patients with beta-thalassaemia to restore normal
blood cell formation (haematopoiesis). Many patients remain unable to
receive this treatment because of the difficulty of finding an
HLA-matching donor within the immediate and extended family. Thus,
patients with nonsibling donors and patient without donors may benefit
from
Saviour Sibling Program (SSP).
Saviour Siblings are children who are born through
in-vitro fertilisation whose tissue (HSC from the cord blood) will be
donated so that a brother or sister will be saved from the
life-threatening genetic disorder.
Moving beyond routine preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy
(PGT-A) and preimplantation genetic testing for mutations (PGT-M), Alpha
Fertility Centre now offers pre-implantation genetic testing for HLA
(PGT-HLA), to help parents conceive a child who is a tissue (HLA) match
with their older sibling. During the birth of the saviour sibling, the
umbilical cord blood which is rich in stem cells (otherwise considered a
waste material) is harvested and infused to the moribund child to
restore normal blood cell formation.
Alpha Fertility Centre is the first and only IVF centre in Malaysia that offers NGS-based
high-resolution HLA genotyping on embryonic biopsies to
select embryos that are chromosomally healthy (PGT-A), disease-free
(PGT-M) and HLA matching (PGT-HLA) for the sick sibling. All three
genetic tests are done on a single biopsy sample
Article sharing from Alpha Fertility Website
