ORPHA:623615
Autoimmune limbic encephalitis
Also known as: ALE
Publications
784
91.3th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
1,195
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare autoimmune encephalitis involving the mesial temporal lobes and clinically characterized by subacute onset (i. e. rapid progression of less than three months) of short-term memory deficits, or psychiatric symptoms, such as behavioral changes, anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Further diagnostic criteria are bilateral abnormalities restricted to the mesial temporal lobes in brain MRI, cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis and/or epileptic or slow-wave activity involving the temporal lobes in EEG, and reasonable exclusion of alternative causes. Paraneoplastic or non-paraneoplastic antibodies against neuronal antigens may be found in serum and/or cerebrospinal fluid.
How rare: 1-9 / 100 000 — about one to nine people per hundred thousand.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0850097
- UMLS:C2930824
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.”
2/6 stages with a signal
No specific-condition interventional trial, but broader-category trials exist — discuss eligibility with a clinician.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
784 matched papers (608 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialPartial
None under the specific name; 2 for broader category limbic encephalitis
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)
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?
784
784 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=5449) is 41.
784 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).
608 in the last 10 years · medium confidence · 91.3th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 784 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
1,195
Distinct author names in 200 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.
- 01Melzer N11 papers · 2025
Department of Neurology with Institute of Translational Neurology, Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Kovac S10 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology with Institute of Translational Neurology, Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Wiendl H10 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology with Institute of Translational Neurology, Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Meuth SG9 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology with Institute of Translational Neurology, Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Dik A8 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology with Institute of Translational Neurology, Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Irani SR6 papers · 2026
Oxford Autoimmune Neurology Group, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Räuber S6 papers · 2025
Department of Neurology with Institute of Translational Neurology, Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Strippel C6 papers · 2025
Department of Neurology with Institute of Translational Neurology, Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Argyropoulos GPD5 papers · 2026
Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Butler CR5 papers · 2026
Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
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). 2 trials are registered for limbic encephalitis, 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.
medium 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.
2 interventional trials matched limbic encephalitis, the broader category — listed below. Those studies are not counted in the condition-specific total.
Broader category: limbic encephalitis
2
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
- NCT06515106·RECRUITING·Antibody-mediated LGI1 Encephalitis: Symptoms, Biomarkers, and Mechanisms of the Chronic Phase of the Disease
Conditions: Limbic Encephalitis With LGI1 Antibodies·Matched via name phrase
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 2026-07-26This 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.
"Autoimmune limbic encephalitis"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Autoimmune limbic encephalitis"
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Parent-category trials query:
"limbic encephalitis"
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Synonyms dropped by stoplist: ALE
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
Ingested 2026-07-27T19:11:15.067Z