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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

144,650

Trials

4

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,144

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

3/6

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.”

3/6 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

    144,650 matched papers (66,470 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedPresent

    53 HPO annotations (e.g. Confusion; Hallucinations; Headache) Source

  4. Animal modelNot found

    No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  5. Orphan designationNot found

    No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source

  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)

53

Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0021081

  • Confusion
  • Hallucinations
  • Headache
  • Involuntary movements
  • EEG with temporal sharp slow waves

Showing 5 of 53 — open Monarch for the full list.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.

Monarch fetch 2026-07-29

Therapies

Designations, candidates, and chemicals

FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.

Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)

No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.

Open Targets candidates

1

Drugs / clinical candidates · MONDO_0021081

CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)

No CTD chemical associations returned for this Mondo ID.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

144,650

144,650 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.

144,650 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).

66,470 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 11 September 2026

4 interventional trials — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 88.1th percentile).

low confidence · 88.1th 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

Other registries (secondary)

Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.

raw 3 · after dedupe 3 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 3 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-30

Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri

No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).

Uncertain / not reviewed (3)

Where to find support

Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.

Orphanet entry for NMDA receptor encephalitis — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

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") OR (MESH:"Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis") OR ("NMDA" OR "NMDA syndrome" OR "NMDA-related")

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 (144650) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity

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