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ORPHA:527497

NKX6-2-related autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy-progressive spastic ataxia · SPAX8

Publications

584

Trials

0

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

139

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

NKX6-2

Strong

Readiness

4/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare leukodystrophy characterized by a spectrum of neurologic manifestations comprising rapidly early-onset nystagmus, spastic tetraplegia, and visual and hearing impairment, resulting in death in early childhood, as well as later onset of slowly complex spastic with pyramidal and cerebellar symptoms and loss of developmental milestones. Brain imaging shows diffuse hypomyelination of the subcortical and deep white matter, cerebellar atrophy, and diffuse spinal cord volume loss.

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)

spastic ataxia 8, autosomal recessive, with hypomyelinating leukodystrophy

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 — NKX6-2

  2. LiteraturePresent

    584 matched papers (407 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedPresent

    64 HPO annotations (e.g. Hirsutism; Seizure; Hypoplasia of the corpus callosum) 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; 31 for broader category leukodystrophy

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 (NKX6-2).

GenCC classification: Strong.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

64

Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0033043

  • Hirsutism
  • Seizure
  • Hypoplasia of the corpus callosum
  • Global developmental delay
  • Generalized hypotonia

Showing 5 of 64 — 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?

584

584 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.

584 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).

407 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 15 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

139

Distinct author names in 15 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
    Garcia-Alonso L3 papers · 2022

    Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Houlden H3 papers · 2024

    Department of Neuromuscular Disorders, Institute of Neurology, University College London (UCL), London, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Lorenzi V3 papers · 2022

    Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Vento-Tormo R3 papers · 2022

    Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK. rv4@sanger.ac.uk.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Bayraktar OA2 papers · 2022

    Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Chelban V2 papers · 2020

    Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, University College London Institute of Neurology, London, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Crespo B2 papers · 2022

    Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Engelbert J2 papers · 2022

    Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Haniffa M2 papers · 2022

    Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Herbert M2 papers · 2022

    Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

    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). 31 trials are registered for leukodystrophy, 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.

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

Broader category: leukodystrophy

31

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 NKX6-2-related autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy — 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.

("NKX6-2-related autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy" OR "Autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy-progressive spastic ataxia" OR "SPAX8" OR "spastic ataxia 8, autosomal recessive, with hypomyelinating leukodystrophy") OR ("NKX6-2" OR "NKX6-2 syndrome" OR "NKX6-2-related")

Run this search on Europe PMC

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

"NKX6-2-related autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy" OR "Autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy-progressive spastic ataxia" OR "SPAX8" OR "spastic ataxia 8, autosomal recessive, with hypomyelinating leukodystrophy"

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

Parent-category trials query:

"leukodystrophy"

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; 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
  • Publication count (584) is implausibly high for prevalence class "<1 / 1 000 000" — treat as possible over-matching, not a measure of research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-27T18:04:40.440Z