New ART regulations push up cost of treatment, limit conception opportunities (GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- The Health Ministry had notified the Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulations (ART), 2023, which are aimed at providing donors and patients with better medical care and security earlier this year.
Key Highlights:
- The new ART provisions impose restrictions on the number of times a donor, male or female, can donate (sperm/oocyte) in their lifetime, and specifies age limits for donors.
- The provision states that an oocyte donor should be a person who have been married at least once in their lives and have at least one living child of her own (minimum three years of age). She can donate oocyte only once in her lifetime and not more than seven oocytes can be retrieved.
- An ART bank cannot supply gamete (reproductive cell) of a single donor to more than one commissioning couple (couple seeking services).
- The parties seeking ART services will be required to provide insurance coverage in the favour of the oocyte donor (for any loss, damage, or death of the donor).
- A clinic is prohibited from offering to provide a child of pre-determined sex. Also checking for genetic diseases before the embryo implantation is needed.
- While welcoming the safety measures and transparency the new provisions bring, Archna Dhawan Bajaj, gynaecologist, Nurture IVF, said that the restrictions significantly limit the opportunities for ART couples to find suitable donors.
Concerns:
- The new provisions have pushed up the already sky-high medical costs and are proving to be a challenge for treating doctors and couples wanting to have children through ART because of the restricted and limited resource availability in terms of donors.
- Overall, the new ART laws are restricting the number of donation attempts. They have the potential to increase costs and create challenges for couples relying on assisted reproductive techniques.
- India is facing a dip in fertility rates and further limiting available donors is likely to bring in more challenges.
The role of the Y chromosome in cancer outcomes studied
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- Two studies have recently shed light on the role of the Y chromosome in cancer outcomes, in which males are often more adversely affected than females.
Role of Y chromosome:
- Sex is known to affect cancer incidence, clinical outcomes and tumour biology, with most cancers causing worse outcomes in males than in females. Some studies have suggested that the function of the Y chromosome may have a role.
- One paper identified an upregulated gene on the Y chromosome that contributes to colorectal cancer in mice by driving tumour invasion and aiding immune escape in males.
- The other study demonstrated how the loss of the Y chromosome in bladder cancer generates a more immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment and contributes to worse outcomes.
Key Highlights:
- Researcher from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center assessed sex differences in colorectal cancer in a mouse model of the disease.
- Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths, which is more aggressive and metastatic in males.
- The model is a specific form of the disease, driven by a known oncogene called KRAS. The researchers observed a higher frequency of metastasis and worse survival in male mice, mirroring the outcomes seen in humans.
- Analyses reveal upregulation of a gene for an enzyme which drives tumour invasion and immune escape.
- This gene is expressed on the Y chromosome, thereby providing a potential basis for sex-specific differences in the progression of KRAS-driven colorectal cancer.
Loss of the Y chromosome:
- In another study, researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles and colleagues investigated how the loss of the Y chromosome might affect cancer outcomes.
- Loss of the Y chromosome is a feature observed in multiple cancer types.
- They first looked at clinical data from 300 male patients with bladder cancer to identify an association between Y chromosome loss and poor prognosis.
- They studied bladder cancer cell lines and found that tumours lacking the Y chromosome were more aggressive and had a dampened T cell-mediated immune response compared with tumours which had the Y chromosomes intact.
- They loss of the Y chromosome is associated with an increased response to a specific type of immunotherapy called anti-PD1 checkpoint blockade therapy in both mice and humans, suggesting a potential treatment for this subset of bladder cancers.
