RARE DISEASERESEARCH ATLAS

ORPHA:238583

Hyperphenylalaninemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency

high confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Hyperphenylalaninemia due to BH4 deficiency

Publications

14

22.8th percentile

Trials

2

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

68

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

Readiness

5/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A disorder of pterin metabolism characterized by tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) biosynthesis or recycling deficiencies, leading to central dopamine and serotonin deficiency, characterized by -onset neurological disease of variable severity ranging from mild forms with minor neurological development to severe forms with , , complex movement disorder dominated by dystonia or dystonia parkinsonism.

How rare: 1-9 / 1 000 000 — roughly one to nine people per million. In a city the size of Kolkata, perhaps a few dozen.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

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

Additional Mondo synonyms (3)

hyperphenylalaninemia due to BH4 deficiency · hyperphenylalaninemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency · non-phenylketonuric hyperphenylalaninemia

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.”

5/6 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

    14 matched papers (6 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedPresent

    150 HPO annotations (e.g. Elevated urinary 7-biopterin level; Generalized hypotonia; Hypertonia) Source

  4. Animal modelPresent

    3 genotype models (Mus musculus) Source

  5. Orphan designationPresent

    2 FDA designations (2 FDA orphan-indication approvals) — e.g. sepiapterin Source

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    2 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (1 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)

150

Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0016543

  • Elevated urinary 7-biopterin level
  • Generalized hypotonia
  • Hypertonia
  • Hyperphenylalaninemia
  • Tremor

Showing 5 of 150 — open Monarch for the full list.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

3

Model associations linked to this Mondo ID

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)

2

Designations · 2 with FDA orphan-indication approval

  • FDA sepiapterinTetrahydrobiopterin Deficiency · 2020-02-19 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA L-5-hydroxytryptophanTetrahydrobiopterin Deficiency · 1999-01-20 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication

Sources: FDA OOPD · EMA orphan designations

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?

14

14 papers have ever been indexed 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=3967) is 59.

14 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).

6 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 22.8th percentile (publications denominator)

Phrase hits: 14 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

68

Distinct author names in 14 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
    Blau N2 papers · 2015

    University Children's Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 430, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: nenad.blau@med.uni-heidelberg.de.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Channon KM2 papers · 2014
    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Crabtree MJ2 papers · 2014

    Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom. mark.crabtree@well.ox.ac.uk

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Alharbi AM1 paper · 2022

    Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Hail, Hail, Saudi Arabia.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Alqahtani AM1 paper · 2022

    Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Alqahtani S1 paper · 2022

    Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Alqahtani T1 paper · 2022

    Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Arbustini E1 paper · 2010
    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Arnoux JB1 paper · 2024

    Centre de Référence des Maladies Héréditaires du Métabolisme, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, APHP, 149 rue de Sèvres 75015, Paris, France.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Asiri YI1 paper · 2022

    Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

2

interventional trials for this specific condition

2 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 1 currently recruiting in our sample.

Data as of 11 September 2026

2 interventional trials — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 84.5th percentile).

high confidence · 84.5th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

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

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 2 · after dedupe 2 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 2 · 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 (2)

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 Hyperphenylalaninemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

Directly listed under NPRD Group 2.

Group 2 — long-term / lifelong lower-cost interventions

NPRD envisages State Government support for dietary formulae, hormones, and other lower-cost interventions. This is a different route from the central CoE ₹50 lakh pathway; ask your state health department and a CoE which channel applies.

Central CoE funding may also apply depending on current rules — confirm with a notified Centre of Excellence. Do not assume the ₹50 lakh ceiling covers Group 2 by default. Verify

Centres of Excellence (15)
  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)New Delhi, Delhi
  • Maulana Azad Medical CollegeNew Delhi, Delhi
  • Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical SciencesLucknow, Uttar Pradesh
  • Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER)Chandigarh, Chandigarh
  • Centre for DNA Fingerprinting & Diagnostics with Nizam’s Institute of Medical SciencesHyderabad, Telangana
  • King Edward Memorial HospitalMumbai, Maharashtra
  • Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER)Kolkata, West Bengal
  • Centre for Human Genetics with Indira Gandhi HospitalBengaluru, Karnataka
  • Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children (ICH & HC)Chennai, Tamil Nadu
  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)Jodhpur, Rajasthan
  • Sree Avittam Thirunal Hospital (SAT), Government Medical CollegeThiruvananthapuram, Kerala
  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
  • Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS)Imphal, Manipur
  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)Patna, Bihar
  • Assam Medical College & HospitalDibrugarh, Assam

Voluntary contributions / crowdfunding (separate from CoE funding): https://rarediseases.mohfw.gov.in/

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.

"Hyperphenylalaninemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency" OR "Hyperphenylalaninemia due to BH4 deficiency" OR "non-phenylketonuric hyperphenylalaninemia"

Run this search on Europe PMC

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

"Hyperphenylalaninemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency" OR "Hyperphenylalaninemia due to BH4 deficiency" OR "non-phenylketonuric hyperphenylalaninemia"

Interventional trials matched via: 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: 2 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

Ingested 2026-07-27T10:24:36.085Z