ORPHA:309256
Metachromatic leukodystrophy, late infantile form
Also known as: Arylsulfatase A deficiency, late infantile form · MLD, late infantile form
Query health: suspect — Only one of 2 strategies returned hits (phrase).
Publications
2
7th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
7
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A subtype of Metachromatic leukodystrophy characterized by rapidly psychomotor regression with an onset before 30 months of age after a period of apparently normal development. Manifestations developing during the course of the disease are impaired feeding and swallowing due to pseudobulbar palsies, , painful spasms, muscle weakness, , paralysis, dementia, and loss of speech, vision, and hearing, quickly resulting in complete loss of motor and cognitive skills, and decerebration. Death occurs within the first decade of life.
How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0017729
- UMLS:C0751278
Additional Mondo synonyms (1)
arylsulfatase A deficiency, late infantile form
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
No specific-condition interventional trial, but broader-category trials exist — discuss eligibility with a clinician.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
2 matched papers (1 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialPartial
None under the specific name; 23 for broader category metachromatic leukodystrophy
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?
2
2 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=5449) is 41.
2 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).
1 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 7th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 2 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
7
Distinct author names in 2 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.
- 01Clausen J1 paper · 1973Papers in Europe PMC
- 02Gombolay GY1 paper · 2025
Division of Child Neurology, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, GA; and.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Gupta A1 paper · 2025
Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Kahn I1 paper · 2025
Division of Child Neurology, Children's National Hospital, Washington DC.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Melchior JC1 paper · 1973Papers in Europe PMC
- 06Sahjwani D1 paper · 2025
Division of Child Neurology, Children's National Hospital, Washington DC.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Sen K1 paper · 2025
Division of Neurogenetics and Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics, Children's National Hospital, Washington DC.
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). 23 trials are registered for metachromatic leukodystrophy, the broader category — shown separately because they may or may not enrol this specific subtype.
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
high confidence · 36.5th 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.
23 interventional trials matched metachromatic leukodystrophy, the broader category — listed below. Those studies are not counted in the condition-specific total.
Broader category: metachromatic leukodystrophy
23
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
- NCT07046338·RECRUITING·Lentiviral Hematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy for MLD
Conditions: Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)·Matched via name phrase
- NCT03725670·RECRUITING·Direct Lentiviral Injection Gene Therapy for MLD
Conditions: Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)·Matched via name phrase
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 2026-07-26This 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.
"Metachromatic leukodystrophy, late infantile form" OR "Arylsulfatase A deficiency, late infantile form" OR "MLD, late infantile form"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Metachromatic leukodystrophy, late infantile form" OR "Arylsulfatase A deficiency, late infantile form" OR "MLD, late infantile form" OR "metachromatic leukodystrophy, juvenile form"
Recall-expansion terms: metachromatic leukodystrophy, juvenile form
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Parent-category trials query:
"metachromatic leukodystrophy"
Query health: suspect — strategies attempted: phrase, recall-expansion; 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 2026-07-27T12:56:11.476Z