RARE DISEASERESEARCH ATLAS

ORPHA:506

Leigh syndrome

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Infantile subacute necrotizing encephalopathy · Leigh disease

Publications

6,446

Trials

15

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,501

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

ADAR, AIFM1, ATP5MK

Definitive

Readiness

3/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A neurological disease defined by specific neuropathological features associating brainstem and basal ganglia lesions.

How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

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

Additional Mondo synonyms (5)

LS · LSS · Leigh syndrome spectrum · Leigh's disease · infantile subacute necrotizing encephalopathy

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.”

3/6 stages with a signal

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

  1. Gene identifiedPresent

    Definitive — ADAR, AIFM1, ATP5MK, BCS1L, BTD…

  2. LiteraturePresent

    6,446 matched papers (3,790 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 trialPresent

    15 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (4 recruiting in sample)

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.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

Not enriched in this build.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

6,446

6,446 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.

6,446 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).

3,790 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 6,446 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,501

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
    Murayama K10 papers · 2026

    Department of Metabolism, Chiba Children's Hospital, Japan.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Rahman S10 papers · 2025

    Genetics and Genomic Medicine Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom; Metabolic Medicine Department, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: shamima.rahman@ucl.ac.uk.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Fang F8 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, Beijing, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Finsterer J8 papers · 2026

    Neurology & Neurophysiology Center, Austria.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Falk MJ7 papers · 2025

    Mitochondrial Medicine Frontier Program, Division of Human Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Johnson SC7 papers · 2026

    Center for Integrative Brain Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Chen Y6 papers · 2026

    Center for Integrative Brain Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Ohtake A6 papers · 2026

    Department of Clinical Genomics, Faculty of Medicine, Saitama Medical University, Moroyama 350-0495, Japan.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    James K5 papers · 2026

    Center for Integrative Brain Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Klopstock T5 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology, Friedrich-Baur-Institute, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München, Munich, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Munich, Germany; Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany; German Network for mitochondrial disorders (mitoNET), Munich, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

15

interventional trials for this specific condition

15 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 4 currently recruiting in our sample.

Data as of 27 July 2026

15 interventional trials — more than 73% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5114 of 7003; this disease is at the 93.5th percentile).

low confidence · 93.5th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

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

Observational and natural-history studies

16 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

Recruiting or not-yet-recruiting

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

General rare disease registries you may be eligible for

These studies enroll across many rare conditions. They are not counted as evidence that anyone is studying this specific disease.

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.

"Leigh syndrome" OR "Infantile subacute necrotizing encephalopathy" OR "Leigh disease" OR "Leigh syndrome spectrum" OR "Leigh's disease"

Run this search on Europe PMC

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

"Leigh syndrome" OR "Infantile subacute necrotizing encephalopathy" OR "Leigh disease" OR "Leigh syndrome spectrum" OR "Leigh's disease" OR "ADAR" OR "AIFM1" OR "ATP5MK" OR "BCS1L" OR "BTD" OR "CLPB" OR "COQ9" OR "COX10" OR "COX15" OR "COX4I1" OR "COX8A" OR "COXFA4" OR "DLAT" OR "DLD" OR "DNM1L" OR "EARS2" OR "ECHS1" OR "ETHE1" OR "FARS2" OR "FBXL4" OR "FOXRED1" OR "GFM1" OR "GFM2" OR "GTPBP3" OR "HIBCH" OR "HPDL" OR "IARS2" OR "KGD4" OR "LIAS" OR "LIPT1" OR "LONP1" OR "LRPPRC" OR "MECR" OR "MFF" OR "MORC2" OR "MRPS34" OR "MT-ATP6" OR "MT-CO1" OR "MT-CO2" OR "MT-CO3" OR "MT-ND1" OR "MT-ND2" OR "MT-ND3" OR "MT-ND4" OR "MT-ND5" OR "MT-ND6" OR "MT-TI" OR "MT-TK" OR "MT-TL1" OR "MT-TL2" OR "MT-TV" OR "MT-TW" OR "MTFMT" OR "MTRFR" OR "NARS2" OR "NAXE" OR "NDUFA1" OR "NDUFA10" OR "NDUFA12" OR "NDUFA13" OR "NDUFA2" OR "NDUFA3" OR "NDUFA9" OR "NDUFAF2" OR "NDUFAF4" OR "NDUFAF5" OR "NDUFAF6" OR "NDUFAF8" OR "NDUFB8" OR "NDUFC2" OR "NDUFS1" OR "NDUFS2" OR "NDUFS3" OR "NDUFS4" OR "NDUFS7" OR "NDUFS8" OR "NDUFV1" OR "NDUFV2" OR "NUBPL" OR "NUP62" OR "OPA1" OR "PDHA1" OR "PDHB" OR "PDHX" OR "PDSS2" OR "PET100" OR "PET117" OR "PNPT1" OR "POLG" OR "PTCD3" OR "RANBP2" OR "RNASEH1" OR "SCO2" OR "SDHA" OR "SDHAF1" OR "SERAC1" OR "SLC19A3" OR "SLC25A19" OR "SLC25A4" OR "SLC25A46" OR "SLC39A8" OR "SQOR" OR "SSBP1" OR "SUCLA2" OR "SUCLG1" OR "SURF1" OR "TACO1" OR "TARS2" OR "TIMMDC1" OR "TPK1" OR "TRMU" OR "TSFM" OR "TTC19" OR "UQCRQ" OR "VPS13D"

Recall-expansion terms: ADAR, AIFM1, ATP5MK, BCS1L, BTD, CLPB, COQ9, COX10, COX15, COX4I1, COX8A, COXFA4, DLAT, DLD, DNM1L, EARS2, ECHS1, ETHE1, FARS2, FBXL4, FOXRED1, GFM1, GFM2, GTPBP3, HIBCH, HPDL, IARS2, KGD4, LIAS, LIPT1, LONP1, LRPPRC, MECR, MFF, MORC2, MRPS34, MT-ATP6, MT-CO1, MT-CO2, MT-CO3, MT-ND1, MT-ND2, MT-ND3, MT-ND4, MT-ND5, MT-ND6, MT-TI, MT-TK, MT-TL1, MT-TL2, MT-TV, MT-TW, MTFMT, MTRFR, NARS2, NAXE, NDUFA1, NDUFA10, NDUFA12, NDUFA13, NDUFA2, NDUFA3, NDUFA9, NDUFAF2, NDUFAF4, NDUFAF5, NDUFAF6, NDUFAF8, NDUFB8, NDUFC2, NDUFS1, NDUFS2, NDUFS3, NDUFS4, NDUFS7, NDUFS8, NDUFV1, NDUFV2, NUBPL, NUP62, OPA1, PDHA1, PDHB, PDHX, PDSS2, PET100, PET117, PNPT1, POLG, PTCD3, RANBP2, RNASEH1, SCO2, SDHA, SDHAF1, SERAC1, SLC19A3, SLC25A19, SLC25A4, SLC25A46, SLC39A8, SQOR, SSBP1, SUCLA2, SUCLG1, SURF1, TACO1, TARS2, TIMMDC1, TPK1, TRMU, TSFM, TTC19, UQCRQ, VPS13D

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

Study-type breakdown: 15 interventional · 16 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

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

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Synonyms dropped by stoplist: LS; LSS

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is short or not clearly distinctive
  • 2 synonym(s) dropped by stoplist (may under-count)
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus

Ingested 2026-07-26T14:05:15.981Z