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ORPHA:217253

NMDA receptor encephalitis

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Limbic encephalitis with N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies · Limbic encephalitis with NMDA receptor antibodies · N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis · NMDARE · anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis

Publications

4,135

Trials

4

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,144

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

2/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare limbic encephalitis characterized by the presence of autoantibodies against NMDA receptors in serum and cerebrospinal fluid. It may be of paraneoplastic (most commonly associated with ovarian teratoma) or non-paraneoplastic origin and is life-threatening but potentially treatable. Patients present with acute behavioral change, psychosis, and catatonia, rapidly progressing to , memory deficit, dyskinesias, speech problems, and autonomic and breathing dysregulation.

How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Additional Mondo synonyms (2)

limbic encephalitis with N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies · limbic encephalitis with NMDA receptor antibodies

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

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    4,135 matched papers (3,204 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO

  4. Animal modelNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance

  5. Orphan designationNot checked

    FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    4 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (2 recruiting in sample)

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?

Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.

No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.

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?

4,135

4,135 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.

4,135 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).

3,204 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 4,135 · MeSH hits: 32

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,144

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.

  1. 01
    Dalmau J7 papers · 2026

    Neuroimmunology Program, Fundació de Recerca Clínic Barcelona-Institut d'Investigacions Biomédiques August Pi i Sunyer (FRCB-IDIBAPS), University of Barcelona, Spain and Caixa Research Institute (CRI), Barcelona, Spain.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Finke C7 papers · 2026

    From the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Neurology, Charité Campus Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Guo S7 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Li J7 papers · 2025

    Department of Neurology, Liuzhou People's Hospital affiliated to Guangxi Medical University, No.8 Rd.wenchang Liuzhou, Liuzhou, 545000, Guangxi Province, China. l.j.lijie@163.com.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Wang H7 papers · 2026

    Departments of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China. Electronic address: huabing_w@126.com.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Gombolay G5 papers · 2024

    Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, 1400 Tulle Road NE, 8(th) Floor, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA. Electronic address: ggombol@emory.edu.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Guasp M5 papers · 2026

    Neuroimmunology Program, Fundació de Recerca Clínic Barcelona-Institut d'Investigacions Biomédiques August Pi i Sunyer (FRCB-IDIBAPS), University of Barcelona, Spain and Caixa Research Institute (CRI), Barcelona, Spain.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Jiang Y5 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology and Clinical Research Center of Neurological Disease, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Li X5 papers · 2025

    Department of Neurology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Child Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Disorders, Chongqing, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Liu Y5 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology, Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Liuzhou, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

4

interventional trials for this specific condition

4 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 2 currently recruiting in our sample. 199 trials are registered for encephalitis, the broader category — shown separately because they may or may not enrol this specific subtype.

Data as of 27 July 2026

4 interventional trials — more than 73% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5114 of 7003; this disease is at the 86.7th percentile).

low confidence · 86.7th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

4 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

Broader category: encephalitis

199

Interventional trials for the parent category, exclusive of NCT IDs already counted above. Eligibility for this subtype is not guaranteed.

Worth raising with a clinician. How we count trials.

Recruiting under the broader category

Observational and natural-history studies

7 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

None of the matched observational studies is currently listed as recruiting.

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

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 2026-07-26

This 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.

"NMDA receptor encephalitis" OR "Limbic encephalitis with N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies" OR "Limbic encephalitis with NMDA receptor antibodies" OR "N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis" OR "NMDARE" OR "anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis"

Run this search on Europe PMC

MeSH descriptor terms unioned into the query: Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"NMDA receptor encephalitis" OR "Limbic encephalitis with N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies" OR "Limbic encephalitis with NMDA receptor antibodies" OR "N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis" OR "NMDARE" OR "anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis" OR "Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis"

Interventional trials matched via: both, phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 4 interventional · 7 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Parent-category trials query:

"encephalitis"

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase, mesh; with hits: phrase, mesh

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 (4135) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-27T09:46:06.362Z