ORPHA:1186
Infantile-onset spinocerebellar ataxia
Also known as: IOSCA · Ohaha syndrome · Ophthalmoplegia-hypotonia-ataxia-hypoacusis-athetosis syndrome
Query health: suspect — Only one of 2 strategies returned hits (phrase).
Publications
284
71.4th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
1,068
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
TWNK
Strong
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
-onset spinocerebellar (IOSCA) is a neurological disorder with early and severe involvement of both the peripheral and central nervous systems. It has only been described in Finnish families.
How rare: <1 / 1 000 000 — fewer than one in a million. In a city the size of Kolkata, that might mean on the order of fifteen people.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0010060
- MeSH:C535523
- OMIM:271245
- UMLS:C1849096
Additional Mondo synonyms (6)
OHAHA syndrome · TWNK autosomal recessive degenerative and progressive cerebellar ataxia · autosomal recessive degenerative and progressive cerebellar ataxia caused by mutation in TWNK · mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome 7 (hepatocerebral type) · mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome type 7 · ophthalmoplegia-hypotonia-ataxia-hypoacusis-athetosis syndrome
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
No matched interventional trial; the gene is known and literature exists — preclinical or natural-history work may still be the practical next step.
- Gene identifiedPresent
Strong — TWNK
- LiteraturePresent
284 matched papers (133 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Yes — we know a specific gene responsible (TWNK).
GenCC classification: Strong.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
284
284 papers have ever been published on this condition (under this name). For scale, breast cancer has over 700,000. Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
284 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
133 in the last 10 years · medium confidence · 71.4th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 284 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
1,068
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Suomalainen A15 papers · 2024
Department of Child Neurology (E.I., P.I., T.L.), Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital; Research Programs Unit, Stem Cells and Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine (E.I., P.I., M.P., S.O., V.B., E.P., A.S.), Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) (P.L.), Neuroscience Center (A.S.), HiLife, University of Helsinki, Finland; and Genetics Research Centre (C.J.C.), Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute, St. George's, University of London, United Kingdom.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Lönnqvist T12 papers · 2020
Department of Child Neurology (E.I., P.I., T.L.), Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital; Research Programs Unit, Stem Cells and Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine (E.I., P.I., M.P., S.O., V.B., E.P., A.S.), Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) (P.L.), Neuroscience Center (A.S.), HiLife, University of Helsinki, Finland; and Genetics Research Centre (C.J.C.), Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute, St. George's, University of London, United Kingdom.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Giansanti D10 papers · 2026
Centro TISP, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Via Regina Elena 299, 00161 Roma, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Iosca N10 papers · 2026
Department of Allied Health Professions, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, 50134 Florence, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Lastrucci A10 papers · 2026
Department of Allied Health Professions, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, 50134 Florence, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Paetau A9 papers · 2024
Stem Cell and Metabolism Research Program Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Ricci R9 papers · 2026
Department of Allied Health Professions, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, 50134 Florence, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Wandael Y9 papers · 2026
Department of Allied Health Professions, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, 50134 Florence, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Livi L7 papers · 2026
Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences "M. Serio", University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Nikali K7 papers · 2005
Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
medium confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Infantile-onset spinocerebellar ataxia" OR "IOSCA" OR "Ohaha syndrome" OR "Ophthalmoplegia-hypotonia-ataxia-hypoacusis-athetosis syndrome" OR "TWNK autosomal recessive degenerative and progressive cerebellar ataxia" OR "autosomal recessive degenerative and progressive cerebellar ataxia caused by mutation in TWNK" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome 7 (hepatocerebral type)" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome type 7"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Infantile-onset spinocerebellar ataxia" OR "IOSCA" OR "Ohaha syndrome" OR "Ophthalmoplegia-hypotonia-ataxia-hypoacusis-athetosis syndrome" OR "TWNK autosomal recessive degenerative and progressive cerebellar ataxia" OR "autosomal recessive degenerative and progressive cerebellar ataxia caused by mutation in TWNK" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome 7 (hepatocerebral type)" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome type 7" OR "TWNK"
Recall-expansion terms: TWNK
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: suspect — strategies attempted: phrase, recall-expansion; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
- Publication count (284) is high for prevalence class "<1 / 1 000 000" — confidence capped at medium
Ingested 2026-07-26T16:37:28.610Z