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ORPHA:2202

Palmoplantar keratoderma-deafness syndrome

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: PPK-deafness syndrome · Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-deafness syndrome · Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-hearing loss syndrome · Palmoplantar keratoderma-hearing loss syndrome

Publications

7,749

Trials

0

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,258

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

GJB2

Definitive

Readiness

3/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

Palmoplantar keratoderma-deafness syndrome is a keratinization disorder characterized by focal or diffuse palmoplantar keratoderma. A patchy distribution is observed with accentuation on the thenars, hypothenars and the arches of the feet. The disease becomes apparent in infancy and is associated with sensorineural hearing loss that shows a variable age of onset. Due to genetic and clinical similarities, it has been proposed that palmoplantar keratoderma-deafness syndrome, knuckle pads-leukonychia-sensorineural deafness-palmoplantar hyperkeratosis syndrome and keratoderma hereditarium mutilans may represent variants of one broad disorder of syndromic deafness with heterogeneous . The disease is transmitted in an manner with incomplete penetrance.

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.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

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

Additional Mondo synonyms (4)

palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-deafness syndrome · palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-hearing loss syndrome · palmoplantar keratoderma and sensorineural deafness · palmoplantar keratoderma-hearing loss 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.”

3/6 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.

  1. Gene identifiedPresent

    Definitive — GJB2

  2. LiteraturePresent

    7,749 matched papers (4,117 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedPresent

    5 HPO annotations (e.g. Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis; Hearing impairment; Sensorineural hearing impairment) 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 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 (GJB2).

GenCC classification: Definitive.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

5

Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0007852

  • Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis
  • Hearing impairment
  • Sensorineural hearing impairment
  • Hyperkeratosis
  • Palmoplantar keratoderma

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

No drugs or clinical candidates returned for this Mondo ID on Open Targets.

CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)

No CTD chemical associations returned for this Mondo ID.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

7,749

7,749 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.

7,749 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).

4,117 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 319 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,258

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.

  1. 01
    Finsterer J4 papers · 2025

    Krankenanstalt Rudolfstiftung, Vienna, Austria. duarte@aonmail.at

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Wang Y4 papers · 2023

    Center for Medical Genetics, Gansu Provincial Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Gansu Provincial Clinical Research Center for Birth Defects and Rare Diseases, Lanzhou, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Wonkam A4 papers · 2022

    Division of Human Genetics, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Harrison LR3 papers · 2022

    University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Lexington, KY, United States.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Huang S3 papers · 2023

    Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Liu X3 papers · 2026

    Department of Endocrinology, Xuzhou Central Hospital, Xuzhou, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Oluwole OG3 papers · 2022

    Division of Human Genetics, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Sun D3 papers · 2025

    Department of Pediatric Neurology, Wuhan Children's Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Uitto J3 papers · 2022

    Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Youssefian L3 papers · 2022

    Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

    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 11 September 2026 · last trial check 11 September 2026

No matched interventional trials. This is true for 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator (5501 of 7126). Here are the researchers publishing on it.

low confidence · 38.6th 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.

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 0 · after dedupe 0 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 0 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-29

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).

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 Palmoplantar keratoderma-deafness syndrome — 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.

("Palmoplantar keratoderma-deafness syndrome" OR "PPK-deafness syndrome" OR "Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-deafness syndrome" OR "Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-hearing loss syndrome" OR "Palmoplantar keratoderma-hearing loss syndrome" OR "palmoplantar keratoderma and sensorineural deafness") OR ("GJB2" OR "GJB2 syndrome" OR "GJB2-related")

Run this search on Europe PMC

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

"Palmoplantar keratoderma-deafness syndrome" OR "PPK-deafness syndrome" OR "Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-deafness syndrome" OR "Palmoplantar hyperkeratosis-hearing loss syndrome" OR "Palmoplantar keratoderma-hearing loss syndrome" OR "palmoplantar keratoderma and sensorineural deafness"

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

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; 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 (7749) is implausibly high for prevalence class "<1 / 1 000 000" — treat as possible over-matching, not a measure of research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-26T19:27:23.491Z