RARE DISEASERESEARCH ATLAS

ORPHA:352447

Progressive external ophthalmoplegia-myopathy-emaciation syndrome

high confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Mitochondrial DNA maintenance syndrome due to MGME1 deficiency · PEO-myopathy-emaciation syndrome · mtDNA maintenance syndrome due to MGME1 deficiency

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

Publications

22

32.9th percentile

Trials

0

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

160

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

MGME1

Strong

Readiness

2/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

external ophthalmoplegia--emaciation syndrome is a rare oxidative phosphorylation disorder due to nuclear DNA anomalies characterized by external ophthalmoplegia without diplopia, cerebellar atrophy, proximal skeletal muscle weakness with generalized muscle wasting, profound emaciation, respiratory failure, spinal deformity and facial muscle weakness (manifesting with ptosis, dysphonia, dysphagia and nasal speech). , gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g. nausea, abdominal fullness, and loss of appetite), dilated and renal colic have also been reported.

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 (5)

MGME1 mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome · mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome 11 · mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome caused by mutation in MGME1 · mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome type 11 · mitochondrial DNA maintenance syndrome due to MGME1 deficiency

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

    Strong — MGME1

  2. LiteraturePresent

    22 matched papers (15 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 (MGME1).

GenCC classification: Strong.

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?

22

22 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.

22 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).

15 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 32.9th percentile (publications denominator)

Phrase hits: 22 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

160

Distinct author names in 22 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
    Griger Z Jr2 papers · 2025

    Division of Clinical Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Li H2 papers · 2025

    BGI-Anhui Clinical Laboratory, BGI-Shenzhen, 236000, Fuyang, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Acikgoz NB1 paper · 2026

    Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Genetics, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Adamovsky O1 paper · 2021

    Department of Physiological Sciences and Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology, University of Florida Genetics Institute, Interdisciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences Neuroscience, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Al-Ali MT1 paper · 2021

    Centre for Arab Genomic Studies, Dubai 22252, United Arab Emirates.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Alpat S1 paper · 2026

    Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Division of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Arenas J1 paper · 1995
    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Baráth S1 paper · 2025

    Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Barrionuevo CR1 paper · 1995
    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Bartnik E1 paper · 2018

    Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Pawinskiego 5a, 02-106, Warsaw, Poland.

    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.

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.

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.

"Progressive external ophthalmoplegia-myopathy-emaciation syndrome" OR "Mitochondrial DNA maintenance syndrome due to MGME1 deficiency" OR "PEO-myopathy-emaciation syndrome" OR "mtDNA maintenance syndrome due to MGME1 deficiency" OR "MGME1 mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome 11" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome caused by mutation in MGME1" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome type 11"

Run this search on Europe PMC

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

"Progressive external ophthalmoplegia-myopathy-emaciation syndrome" OR "Mitochondrial DNA maintenance syndrome due to MGME1 deficiency" OR "PEO-myopathy-emaciation syndrome" OR "mtDNA maintenance syndrome due to MGME1 deficiency" OR "MGME1 mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome 11" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome caused by mutation in MGME1" OR "mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome type 11" OR "MGME1"

Recall-expansion terms: MGME1

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

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 2026-07-27T14:11:53.876Z