ORPHA:238583
Hyperphenylalaninemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency
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.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0016543
- UMLS:C0751436
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.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
14 matched papers (6 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedPresent
150 HPO annotations (e.g. Elevated urinary 7-biopterin level; Generalized hypotonia; Hypertonia) Source
- Animal modelPresent
3 genotype models (Mus musculus) Source
- Orphan designationPresent
2 FDA designations (2 FDA orphan-indication approvals) — e.g. sepiapterin Source
- 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
- Ptstm1Ich/Ptstm1Ich [background:] involves: 129X1/SvJ * C57BL/6J·MGI:2669893·Mus musculus
- Ptstm1Thny/Ptstm1Thny [background:] involves: 129/Sv * C57BL/6·MGI:2672965·Mus musculus
- Gch1em1Ypt/Gch1em1Ypt [background:] C57BL/6-Gch1em1Ypt·MGI:6474005·Mus musculus
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
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.
- 01Blau 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 - 02Channon KM2 papers · 2014Papers in Europe PMC
- 03Crabtree 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 - 04Alharbi AM1 paper · 2022
Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Hail, Hail, Saudi Arabia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Alqahtani AM1 paper · 2022
Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Alqahtani S1 paper · 2022
Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Alqahtani T1 paper · 2022
Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Arbustini E1 paper · 2010Papers in Europe PMC
- 09Arnoux 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 - 10Asiri 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.
- NCT04896281·RECRUITING·Phenylalanine-free Diet for Patients With Secondary Hyperphenylalaninemia in ICU
Not reviewed·Conditions: Non-Phenylketonuric Hyperphenylalaninemia·Matched via name phrase
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)
- isrctn·ISRCTN77098312·No longer recruiting·Treatment of hyperphenylalaninemia with Sapropterin dihydrochloride (tetrahydrobiopterin, 6R-BH4) and its influence on the amino acids and fatty acids patterns from childhood to adulthood
(Tratamiento de la hiperfenilalaninemia con dihidrocloruro de Sapropterina [tetrahidrobiopterina, 6r-bh4] y su influencia en el patrón de aminoácidos y ácidos grasos desde la infancia hasta la edad adulta)
skipped — LLM skipped (--skip-llm)
- isrctn·ISRCTN79102999·No longer recruiting·A Phase III study of sepiapterin versus sapropterin in participants with phenylketonuria ≥2 years of age
skipped — LLM skipped (--skip-llm)
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 2026-07-26Directly 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 College — New Delhi, Delhi
- Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences — Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
- Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) — Chandigarh, Chandigarh
- Centre for DNA Fingerprinting & Diagnostics with Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences — Hyderabad, Telangana
- King Edward Memorial Hospital — Mumbai, Maharashtra
- Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) — Kolkata, West Bengal
- Centre for Human Genetics with Indira Gandhi Hospital — Bengaluru, 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 College — Thiruvananthapuram, 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 & Hospital — Dibrugarh, 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"
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
