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ORPHA:521426

PLAA-associated neurodevelopmental disorder

high confidenceDisorder

Also known as: PLAAND

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

Publications

98

63.5th percentile

Trials

0

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

646

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

PLAA

Strong

Readiness

3/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare genetic neurological disorder characterized by onset of leukoencephalopathy, microcephaly, severe global , and spasticity resulting in quadriparesis and posture deformation. Additional features include an abnormally exaggerated startle reflex, , dystonia, and hypomimia or amimia, as well as chest deformities and contractures of large and hyperextensibility of small joints, among others. Thin corpus callosum is a prominent feature in brain imaging, in addition to white matter abnormalities consistent with leukoencephalopathy.

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 (1)

neurodevelopmental disorder with progressive microcephaly, spasticity, and brain anomalies

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

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

  1. Gene identifiedPresent

    Strong — PLAA

  2. LiteraturePresent

    98 matched papers (84 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 trialPartial

    None under the specific name; 39 for broader category neurodevelopmental disorder

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 (PLAA).

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?

98

98 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.

98 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).

84 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 63.5th percentile (publications denominator)

Phrase hits: 98 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

646

Distinct author names in 98 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
    Elsea SH6 papers · 2023

    Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Chen L3 papers · 2020

    Department of Cellular and Genetic Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Jensik PJ3 papers · 2023

    Department of Physiology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Carbondale, Illinois.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    LINTAS CARLA3 papers · 2010
    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Liu C3 papers · 2025

    Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Mullegama SV3 papers · 2021

    Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Pierson TM3 papers · 2024

    Department of Pediatrics, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Tyler.Pierson@cshs.org.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    SACCO ROBERTO3 papers · 2010
    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Bain JM2 papers · 2025

    Department of Neurology, Division of Child Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Balasubramanian M2 papers · 2025

    Senior Clinical Lecturer, Department of Oncology & Metabolism, University of Sheffield, Consultant Clinical Geneticist, Sheffield Clinical Genetics Service, Lead Consultant, OI-Genetics Service, Highly Specialised Severe, Complex & Atypical OI Service, Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust

    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). 39 trials are registered for neurodevelopmental disorder, the broader category — shown separately because they may or may not enrol this specific subtype.

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.

39 interventional trials matched neurodevelopmental disorder, the broader category — listed below. Those studies are not counted in the condition-specific total.

Broader category: neurodevelopmental disorder

39

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

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.

"PLAA-associated neurodevelopmental disorder" OR "PLAAND" OR "neurodevelopmental disorder with progressive microcephaly, spasticity, and brain anomalies"

Run this search on Europe PMC

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

"PLAA-associated neurodevelopmental disorder" OR "PLAAND" OR "neurodevelopmental disorder with progressive microcephaly, spasticity, and brain anomalies" OR "PLAA" OR "Mendelian neurodevelopmental disorder"

Recall-expansion terms: PLAA, Mendelian neurodevelopmental disorder

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

Parent-category trials query:

"neurodevelopmental disorder"

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 2026-07-27T18:03:03.885Z