RARE DISEASERESEARCH ATLAS

ORPHA:3454

Wieacker-Wolff syndrome

medium confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Foot contractures-muscle atrophy-oculomotor apraxia syndrome

Query health: suspect — Only one of 2 strategies returned hits (phrase).

Publications

154

65.8th percentile

Trials

0

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,211

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

ZC4H2

Definitive

Readiness

2/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

--contractures syndrome, formerly known as Wieacker-Wolff syndrome, is a severe X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe contractures (arthrogryposis) and .

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 (19)

MCS · MRXS4 · Miles-CARPENTER X-linked mental retardation syndrome · Miles-Carpenter syndrome · WRWF · WRWFXLR · Wieacker Wolff syndrome · Wieacker syndrome · Wieacker-Wolff syndrome, X-linked · Wieacker-Wolff syndrome, X-linked recessive · X-linked intellectual disability, Miles-Carpenter type · ZC4H2-Associated Rare Disorders (ZARD) · apraxia, oculomotor, with congenital contractures and muscle atrophy · contractures of feet, muscle atrophy, and oculomotor apraxia · foot contractures-muscle atrophy-oculomotor apraxia syndrome · intellectual disability-developmental delay-contractures syndrome · mental retardation, X-linked, syndromic 4 · mental retardation, X-linked, with congenital contractures and Low fingertip arches · mental retardation, X-linked, with congenital contractures and low fingertip arches

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 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 — ZC4H2

  2. LiteraturePresent

    154 matched papers (97 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO

  4. Animal modelNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance

  5. Orphan designationNot checked

    FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet

  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 (ZC4H2).

GenCC classification: Definitive.

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?

154

154 papers have ever been published on this condition (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.

154 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).

97 in the last 10 years · medium confidence · 65.8th percentile (publications denominator)

Phrase hits: 154 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,211

Distinct author names in 154 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
    Schwartz CE12 papers · 2023

    Greenwood Genetic Center, SC 29646.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Stevenson RE7 papers · 2022

    Greenwood Genetic Center and Self Memorial Hospital, SC 29646.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Zhang L6 papers · 2026

    State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Zhang Y6 papers · 2024

    Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming Yunnan 650223, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Kim CH5 papers · 2023

    Department of Biology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Republic of Korea. zebrakim@cnu.ac.kr.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Li F4 papers · 2023

    Department of Pathology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Kunming Medical University, Kunming Yunnan 650500, China. leefan623@sina.com.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Mao B4 papers · 2024

    State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Sadikovic B4 papers · 2022

    a Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine , Western University , London , ON , Canada.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Skinner C4 papers · 2022

    c Greenwood Genetics Center , Greenwood , SC , USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Wieacker P4 papers · 2019

    Universitäts-Frauenklinik, Freiburg, Federal Republic of Germany.

    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 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.

medium 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.

See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.

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 2026-07-26

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.

"Wieacker-Wolff syndrome" OR "Foot contractures-muscle atrophy-oculomotor apraxia syndrome" OR "MRXS4" OR "Miles-CARPENTER X-linked mental retardation syndrome" OR "Miles-Carpenter syndrome" OR "WRWFXLR" OR "Wieacker Wolff syndrome" OR "Wieacker syndrome" OR "Wieacker-Wolff syndrome, X-linked" OR "Wieacker-Wolff syndrome, X-linked recessive" OR "X-linked intellectual disability, Miles-Carpenter type" OR "ZC4H2-Associated Rare Disorders (ZARD)" OR "apraxia, oculomotor, with congenital contractures and muscle atrophy" OR "contractures of feet, muscle atrophy, and oculomotor apraxia" OR "contractures of the feet, muscle atrophy, and oculomotor apraxia" OR "intellectual disability-developmental delay-contractures syndrome" OR "mental retardation, X-linked, syndromic 4" OR "mental retardation, X-linked, with congenital contractures and Low fingertip arches"

Run this search on Europe PMC

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

"Wieacker-Wolff syndrome" OR "Foot contractures-muscle atrophy-oculomotor apraxia syndrome" OR "MRXS4" OR "Miles-CARPENTER X-linked mental retardation syndrome" OR "Miles-Carpenter syndrome" OR "WRWFXLR" OR "Wieacker Wolff syndrome" OR "Wieacker syndrome" OR "Wieacker-Wolff syndrome, X-linked" OR "Wieacker-Wolff syndrome, X-linked recessive" OR "X-linked intellectual disability, Miles-Carpenter type" OR "ZC4H2-Associated Rare Disorders (ZARD)" OR "apraxia, oculomotor, with congenital contractures and muscle atrophy" OR "contractures of feet, muscle atrophy, and oculomotor apraxia" OR "contractures of the feet, muscle atrophy, and oculomotor apraxia" OR "intellectual disability-developmental delay-contractures syndrome" OR "mental retardation, X-linked, syndromic 4" OR "mental retardation, X-linked, with congenital contractures and Low fingertip arches" OR "ZC4H2" OR "Wieacker-Wolff syndrome (spectrum)"

Recall-expansion terms: ZC4H2, Wieacker-Wolff syndrome (spectrum)

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

Query health: suspect — strategies attempted: phrase, recall-expansion; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Synonyms dropped by stoplist: MCS; WRWF

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
  • 2 synonym(s) dropped by stoplist (may under-count)
  • "X-linked intellectual disability, Miles-Carpenter type" also appears on ORPHA:85283

Ingested 2026-07-26T23:14:29.741Z