The Role of Cell-Free Fetal DNA as a Preventative Attempt to Decrease the Severity of Genetic Disorders: A Review

Abstract

The development of prenatal diagnosis has developed very rapidly over decades. Prenatal screening is
applied to a mother with high-risk pregnancy (threatening the life of the fetus), such as a too-old mother or
a too-young mother and having a certain disease in her medical history. Up until now, the curative method
to treat genetic disorder is still developed and perfected. Therefore, a preventative action during pregnancy
is important to do, such as Noninvasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT). NIPT method that is widely developed
is the circulating cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) testing that can be useful for determining the fetal gender,
the identification of specific single-gene disorders, blood type, paternity determination, and the potency of
regular use for testing chromosomal abnormalities. The detection of cell-free fetal DNA in the maternal blood
circulation provides a new expectation for NIPT, especially preventing the severity of genetic disorders.