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ORPHA:424027

Progressive myoclonic epilepsy type 8

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: EPM8 · PME type 8 · Progressive myoclonic epilepsy due to CERS1 deficiency · Progressive myoclonus epilepsy type 8

Publications

1,265

Trials

0

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

78

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

CERS1

Strong

Readiness

4/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare, genetic, neurological disorder characterized by childhood to adolescent-onset of action myoclonus, generalized tonic-clonic , and slowly , moderate to severe cognitive impairment that may lead to dementia. EEG reveals slowing of background activity and epileptic abnormalities and brain MRI shows cerebellar and brainstem atrophy.

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)

CERS1 progressive myoclonic epilepsy · epilepsy, progressive myoclonic, type 8 · progressive myoclonic epilepsy caused by mutation in CERS1 · progressive myoclonic epilepsy due to CERS1 deficiency · progressive myoclonus epilepsy type 8

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.”

4/6 stages with a signal

No specific-condition interventional trial, but broader-category trials exist — discuss eligibility with a clinician.

  1. Gene identifiedPresent

    Strong — CERS1

  2. LiteraturePresent

    1,265 matched papers (991 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedPresent

    18 HPO annotations (e.g. Dysarthria; Nystagmus; Bilateral tonic-clonic seizure) Source

  4. Animal modelNot found

    No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  5. Orphan designationNot found

    No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source

  6. Interventional trialPartial

    None under the specific name; 4 for broader category myoclonic epilepsy

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 (CERS1).

GenCC classification: Strong.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

18

Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0014545

  • Dysarthria
  • Nystagmus
  • Bilateral tonic-clonic seizure
  • Progressive neurologic deterioration
  • Delayed speech and language development

Showing 5 of 18 — open Monarch for the full list.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.

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)

No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.

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?

1,265

1,265 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.

1,265 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).

991 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 13 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

78

Distinct author names in 13 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
    Bauer R2 papers · 2025

    Molecular Developmental Biology, LIMES-Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Beckschäfer K2 papers · 2025

    Biochemistry & Cell Biology of Lipids, LIMES-Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Dhiman N2 papers · 2025

    Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Soba P2 papers · 2025

    Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Tavosanis G2 papers · 2025

    Dendrite Differentiation, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Thiele C2 papers · 2025

    Biochemistry & Cell Biology of Lipids, LIMES-Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Wesselmann C2 papers · 2025

    Institute of Neuro- and Behavioral Biology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Ziegler AB2 papers · 2025

    Dendrite Differentiation, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Afonso COM1 paper · 2018

    Department of Neurology Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte Natal RN Brazil.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Ahmad W1 paper · 2019

    Department of Physiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

    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). 4 trials are registered for myoclonic epilepsy, the broader category — shown separately because they may or may not enrol this specific subtype.

Data as of 11 September 2026 · last trial check 11 September 2026

No matched interventional trials. This is true for 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator (5501 of 7126). Here are the researchers publishing on it.

low confidence · 38.6th 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.

4 interventional trials matched myoclonic epilepsy, the broader category — listed below. Those studies are not counted in the condition-specific total.

Broader category: myoclonic epilepsy

4

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

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

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 Progressive myoclonic epilepsy type 8 — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

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 myoclonic epilepsy type 8" OR "PME type 8" OR "Progressive myoclonic epilepsy due to CERS1 deficiency" OR "Progressive myoclonus epilepsy type 8" OR "CERS1 progressive myoclonic epilepsy" OR "epilepsy, progressive myoclonic, type 8" OR "progressive myoclonic epilepsy caused by mutation in CERS1") OR ("CERS1" OR "CERS1 syndrome" OR "CERS1-related")

Run this search on Europe PMC

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

"Progressive myoclonic epilepsy type 8" OR "PME type 8" OR "Progressive myoclonic epilepsy due to CERS1 deficiency" OR "Progressive myoclonus epilepsy type 8" OR "CERS1 progressive myoclonic epilepsy" OR "epilepsy, progressive myoclonic, type 8" OR "progressive myoclonic epilepsy caused by mutation in CERS1"

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

Parent-category trials query:

"myoclonic epilepsy"

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Synonyms dropped by stoplist: EPM8

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
  • 1 synonym(s) dropped by stoplist (may under-count)
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
  • Publication count (1265) is implausibly high for prevalence class "<1 / 1 000 000" — treat as possible over-matching, not a measure of research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-27T15:55:19.900Z