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ORPHA:454831

Acute radiation syndrome

high confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Acute radiation sickness

Publications

3,289

89.7th percentile

Trials

8

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,042

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

4/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare radiation-induced disorder resulting from whole body exposure to large doses of penetrating radiation (>0.7 Gray) within a very short period of time (usually minutes) and characterized by bone marrow syndrome with pancytopenia (mild symptoms of which may occur already at 0.3 Gray), gastrointestinal syndrome resulting in mostly fatal infection, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance (occurring at doses >10 Gray), and cardiovascular/central nervous system syndrome with watery diarrhea, convulsions, coma, and death within three days of exposure (occurring at doses >50 Gray). The syndrome develops in four clinical stages (prodromal/latent/manifest illness/recovery or death) of variable duration.

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.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

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

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    3,289 matched papers (1,653 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedPresent

    25 HPO annotations (e.g. Telangiectasia; Hypopigmentation of the skin; Vomiting) Source

  4. Animal modelNot found

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

  5. Orphan designationPresent

    13 FDA · 7 EMA designations (12 FDA orphan-indication approvals) — e.g. Sivelestat Source

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    8 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov

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)

25

Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0033938

  • Telangiectasia
  • Hypopigmentation of the skin
  • Vomiting
  • Decreased total granulocyte count
  • Fatigue

Showing 5 of 25 — 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)

20

Designations · 12 with FDA orphan-indication approval

  • FDA SivelestatAcute Radiation Syndrome · 2021-01-27 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA geranylgeranylacetoneAcute Radiation Syndrome · 2020-06-10 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA Synthetic PreImplantation FactorAcute Radiation Syndrome · 2018-12-19 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA melatoninAcute Radiation Syndrome · 2018-10-22 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA imidazolyl ethanamide pentandioic acidAcute Radiation Syndrome · 2018-09-17 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA indralinAcute Radiation Syndrome · 2018-06-13 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA mosedipimodAcute Radiation Syndrome · 2017-12-19 · Not FDA Approved for Orphan Indication
  • FDA rusalatide acetateAcute Radiation Syndrome · 2017-09-07 · 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?

3,289

3,289 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.

3,289 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).

1,653 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 89.7th percentile (publications denominator)

Phrase hits: 3,289 · MeSH hits: 64

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,042

Distinct author names in 200 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.

  1. 01
    Singh VK15 papers · 2026

    Division of Radioprotectants, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD, 20814-2712, USA. vijay.singh@usuhs.edu.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Fatanmi OO12 papers · 2026

    Division of Radioprotectants, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD, 20814-2712, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Wise SY12 papers · 2026

    Division of Radioprotectants, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD, 20814-2712, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Carpenter AD10 papers · 2026

    Division of Radioprotectants, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD, 20814-2712, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Wang X10 papers · 2026

    Department of Experimental Hematology and Biochemistry, Beijing Key Laboratory for Radiobiology, Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Beijing 100850, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Petrus SA9 papers · 2026

    Division of Radioprotectants, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD, 20814-2712, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Li Y8 papers · 2026

    Analytical & Testing Center, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China. yanli2112@swu.edu.cn.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Li Z8 papers · 2026

    Hematopoietic Acute Radiation Syndrome Medical and Pharmaceutical Basic Research Innovation Center, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Laboratory Medicine Center, Department of Blood Transfusion, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Army Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400037, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Port M8 papers · 2026

    Bundeswehr Institute of Radiobiology, Munich, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Ran Q8 papers · 2026

    Laboratory of Radiation Biology, Department of Blood Transfusion, Laboratory Medicine Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

8

interventional trials for this specific condition

8 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; none in our sample are currently recruiting.

Data as of 11 September 2026

8 interventional trials — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 91.5th percentile).

high confidence · 91.5th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

8 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

No currently recruiting studies in the matched set. Open the same search on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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 44 · after dedupe 44 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 44 · 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 (44)

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 Acute radiation syndrome — 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.

"Acute radiation syndrome" OR "Acute radiation sickness"

Run this search on Europe PMC

MeSH descriptor terms unioned into the query: Acute Radiation Syndrome

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

"Acute radiation syndrome" OR "Acute radiation sickness"

Interventional trials matched via: both (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 8 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

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

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 2026-07-27T16:43:44.196Z