Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55

Mendelian MONDO:0033364 Pathograph 20 Show in embeddings browser Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation Inborn Error of Metabolism Epilepsy

Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy 55 (DEE55) is an autosomal recessive inherited GPI deficiency caused by biallelic variants in PIGP. PIGP encodes a subunit of the GPI-GlcNAc transferase complex, the enzyme that catalyses the first step of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor biosynthesis in the endoplasmic reticulum. More than 150 human proteins reach the cell surface tethered by a GPI anchor, many of them with roles in neurogenesis and synaptic function, so a partial block at the first committed step reduces the surface density of that whole protein class rather than removing a single gene product. The clinical result is early-onset refractory epilepsy — infantile spasms, focal, tonic and tonic-clonic seizures, often with a burst-suppression EEG — together with severe hypotonia and profound global developmental delay. Dyskinetic movement progressing to quadriplegia was prominent in the largest reported family, and premature death in childhood has been reported. The phenotype has since been extended to a presentation of multiple congenital anomalies with hypotonia and seizures, matching what is seen for other genes in the same first-step complex. Reduced surface expression of a GPI-anchored protein — CD16 on granulocytes — is measurable by flow cytometry and supports the diagnosis. The disorder is ultra-rare: fewer than a dozen patients have been published since the gene was first linked to human disease in 2017.

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1
Inheritance
6
Pathophys.
11
Phenotypes
1
Hypotheses
3
Gaps
20
Pathograph
1
Genes
4
Medical Actions
1
Deep Research
🏷

Classifications

ICIMD (Inherited Metabolic Disorders)
lipid glycosylation
👪

Inheritance

1
Autosomal recessive HP:0000007
Reported patients are compound heterozygous or, in a consanguineous family, homozygous for PIGP variants. Inherited GPI deficiencies as a group are autosomal recessive, with PIGA the single X-linked exception.
Autosomal recessive inheritance
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:28334793 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"This work associates mutations in the PIGP gene with a novel autosomal recessive IGD, and expands our knowledge of the role of PIG genes in human development."
States the inheritance mode and places the disorder in the inherited GPI deficiency group.
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Mechanistic Hypotheses

1
Canonical GPI Anchor Flux Reduction Model
canonical_gpi_anchor_flux_reduction_model CANONICAL
Biallelic hypomorphic PIGP variants reduce flux through the first committed step of GPI anchor biosynthesis, lowering the surface density of the whole class of GPI-anchored proteins; because that class is disproportionately important in neurogenesis and synaptic function, the result is a developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. The model is supported by the rescue of GPI-anchored protein surface expression by wild-type PIGP in patient cells, and by the independent demonstration of reduced granulocyte CD16 in a second cohort.
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Discussions and Knowledge Gaps

3
Which of the more than 150 GPI-anchored proteins, or which combination of them, mediates the epilepsy and the developmental impairment in PIGP deficiency?
KNOWLEDGE GAP pigp_which_gpi_anchored_protein
The chain from reduced GPI anchor synthesis to a seizing, developmentally impaired cortex is currently a class-level argument: GPI-anchored proteins matter in neurogenesis, so reducing them all must matter. No study has identified the responsible protein or proteins. Until one does, the edge into the neurodevelopmental node has unknown intermediates, and no protein-specific therapeutic target can be named.
Does residual PIGP activity predict where a patient falls on the spectrum from DEE55 to the multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures presentation?
KNOWLEDGE GAP pigp_genotype_phenotype_severity
The 2023 siblings, one of whom was a fetus with a severe malformation disorder terminated at 17 weeks, carried a start-codon variant in trans with a whole-gene deletion — plausibly the lowest residual activity reported. If severity tracks residual activity, that would both explain the phenotypic range within one gene and make a quantitative flow-cytometry readout prognostic rather than merely diagnostic. With fewer than a dozen patients published, the correlation cannot yet be tested.
Should the shared GPI-anchor-biosynthesis lesion across PIGP, PIGA, PIGV, PIGQ, PIGY and related deficiencies be factored out as a mechanism module?
KNOWLEDGE GAP pigp_gpi_module_absent
The knowledge base already carries several inherited GPI deficiencies curated independently, each restating the same upstream chain. That is the pattern `kb/modules/` exists for. No such module exists yet, so this entry declares no `conforms_to`; recording the gap here is what makes the omission visible rather than looking like an oversight.
⚙

Pathophysiology

6
Biallelic PIGP Variants
Compound heterozygous or homozygous PIGP variants. Reported alleles include c.74T>C (p.Met25Thr) with c.456delA (p.Glu153AsnFs*34) in the founding siblings, a recurrent homozygous c.384del in a large inbred family, and a start-codon variant in trans with a 136 kb deletion removing the whole gene. The effect is reduction rather than abolition of PIGP function: patient cells retained reduced PIGP mRNA, and c.384del is predicted to yield a longer-than-wild-type protein with impaired functionality rather than no protein at all.
PIGP hgnc:3046 HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (hgnc) Relation: this pathophysiological event involves this gene This pathophysiological event involves decreased PIGP (hgnc:3046). hgnc:3046 is a gene from the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee. ↓ DECREASED
Genetic context variant_origin: GERMLINE allelic_event: MISSENSE_VARIANT allelic_event: FRAMESHIFT_VARIANT allelic_event: DELETION allelic_event: COPY_NUMBER_LOSS functional_impact_category: PARTIAL_LOSS_OF_FUNCTION
Germline biallelic PIGP alleles spanning missense, frameshift, start-loss and a 136 kb whole-gene deletion. Both compound heterozygous and homozygous families are reported, so `zygosity` is deliberately left unset rather than picking one — the slot is single-valued and either value would misdescribe half the cohort. The disease state is a partial rather than complete loss of function.
Show evidence (4 references)
PMID:28334793 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Here, we report two siblings with compound heterozygous variants in the gene phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class P (PIGP) (NM_153681.2: c.74T > C;p.Met25Thr and c.456delA;p.Glu153AsnFs*34)."
Establishes the founding genotype.
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"The homozygous c.384del variant of PIGP, present in the 4 patients, introduces a frame shift 6 codons before the expected stop signal and is predicted to result in the synthesis of a protein longer than the wild type, with impaired functionality."
Documents the recurrent homozygous allele and its predicted partial rather than null consequence, which is why this node is a reduction rather than an abolition.
PMID:31139695 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Here, we report the second family with a markedly overlapping phenotype due to a homozygous frameshift mutation (c.456delA;p.Glu153Asnfs*34) in PIGP."
Independent replication in a second family, and the same c.456delA allele the founding siblings carried in compound heterozygous state — making it a recurrent loss-of-function allele across a very small patient population.
+ 1 more reference
Impaired First Step of GPI Anchor Biosynthesis
GPI anchor precursors are assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum through a multistep pathway and then transferred to target proteins, which are further remodelled in the ER and Golgi before reaching the cell surface. PIGP is a subunit of the complex that performs the first step of that pathway; reduced PIGP function throttles flux at the entry point, so the deficit is felt by every downstream GPI-anchored protein rather than by a subset.
GPI anchor biosynthetic process GO:0006506 Gene Ontology (GO) Relation: this pathophysiological event involves this biological process This pathophysiological event involves decreased GPI anchor biosynthetic process (GO:0006506). GO:0006506 is a biological process from the Gene Ontology. ↓ DECREASED
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:28334793 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"PIGP encodes a subunit of the enzyme that catalyzes the first step of GPI anchor biosynthesis."
Places PIGP at the first step of the pathway, which is what makes the downstream effect class-wide.
Reduced GPI-Anchored Protein Surface Expression
The measurable cellular lesion. Patient cells show reduced surface levels of GPI-anchored proteins, and this is restored by exogenous expression of wild-type PIGP — the rescue that establishes causation rather than correlation. Because over 150 human proteins are GPI-anchored, the effect is a class-wide reduction in surface density. This entry deliberately does not name a single culprit protein: no experiment attributes the neurological phenotype to any particular GPI-anchored protein, and the sources do not.
granulocyte CL:0000094 Cell Ontology (CL) Relation: this pathophysiological event involves this cell type This pathophysiological event involves granulocyte (CL:0000094). CL:0000094 is a cell type from the Cell Ontology. neuron CL:0000540 Cell Ontology (CL) Relation: this pathophysiological event involves this cell type This pathophysiological event involves neuron (CL:0000540). CL:0000540 is a cell type from the Cell Ontology.
Show evidence (4 references)
PMID:28334793 SUPPORT In Vitro
"Functional studies with patient cells showed reduced PIGP mRNA levels, and an associated reduction of GPI-anchored cell surface proteins, which was rescued by exogenous expression of wild-type PIGP."
The rescue experiment establishes that reduced PIGP is what lowers GPI-anchored protein surface expression.
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"We demonstrated a reduced expression of the GPI-AP CD16 in the granulocytic membrane in affected individuals."
Independent confirmation of the cellular lesion in a second cohort, using a specific GPI-anchored protein as the readout.
PMID:32156170 SUPPORT Other
"At least 150 human proteins are glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins (GPI-APs)."
Sources the size of the affected protein class, which is the claim that makes this node a class-wide reduction rather than the loss of any one protein — and therefore the reason the edge out of it carries unknown intermediates.
+ 1 more reference
Disrupted Neurodevelopment and Cortical Network Excitability
GPI-anchored proteins play a variety of important roles in development and particularly in neurogenesis, and in synaptic function and plasticity. Reducing the surface density of that class during brain development produces a network that is both developmentally impaired and abnormally excitable — which is what a developmental and epileptic encephalopathy is: the epilepsy and the developmental impairment are two outputs of one lesion, not a cause and its consequence.
nervous system development GO:0007399 Gene Ontology (GO) Relation: this pathophysiological event involves this biological process This pathophysiological event involves decreased nervous system development (GO:0007399). GO:0007399 is a biological process from the Gene Ontology. ↓ DECREASED synaptic signaling GO:0099536 Gene Ontology (GO) Relation: this pathophysiological event involves this biological process This pathophysiological event involves dysregulated synaptic signaling (GO:0099536). GO:0099536 is a biological process from the Gene Ontology. ↕ DYSREGULATED
Show evidence (2 references)
PMID:28334793 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"These proteins play a variety of important roles in development, and particularly in neurogenesis."
Establishes the developmental role of the affected protein class, which is the basis for this node.
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"often playing a role in CNS development and synaptic function and plasticity"
Names both the developmental and the synaptic roles that this node combines.
Refractory Early-Onset Epilepsy
Early-onset refractory seizures are the presenting feature. The seizure repertoire reported includes infantile spasms and focal, tonic and tonic-clonic seizures, with a burst-suppression EEG pattern in the largest family.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:28334793 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Both children presented with early-onset refractory seizures, hypotonia, and profound global developmental delay, reminiscent of other IGD phenotypes."
Establishes refractory early-onset seizures as a core feature.
Profound Developmental Impairment
Profound global developmental delay with severe hypotonia. In the large inbred family the course included early dyskinesia progressing to quadriplegia, and two of four affected children died prematurely between ages 2 and 12 years.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"PIGP mutations are consistently associated with an epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy with the features of early infantile epileptic encephalopathy with profound disability and premature death."
States the severity and outcome that define this node.
⬡

Pathograph

Use the checkboxes to hide or show graph categories. Hover nodes for evidence and cross-linked metadata.
Pathograph: causal mechanism network for Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55 Interactive directed graph showing how pathophysiology mechanisms, phenotypes, genetic factors and variants, experimental models, environmental triggers, and treatments relate through causal and linked edges.
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Phenotypes

11
Head and Neck 1
Progressive Microcephaly HP:0000253 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Progressive microcephaly (HP:0000253). HP:0000253 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"acquired microcephaly (OFC 50 cm, −2 SD), an unclassifiable form of epileptic encephalopathy with asymmetric burst suppression, and spastic quadriplegia"
Documents the acquired (progressive) nature of the microcephaly.
Musculoskeletal 2
Generalized Hypotonia HP:0001290 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Generalized hypotonia (HP:0001290). HP:0001290 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:28334793 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Both children presented with early-onset refractory seizures, hypotonia, and profound global developmental delay"
Names hypotonia as a presenting feature.
Spastic Tetraplegia HP:0002510 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Spastic tetraplegia (HP:0002510), qualified as course progressive. HP:0002510 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Course: PROGRESSIVE
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"The 4 affected children exhibited a severe neurodevelopmental disorder featuring severe hypotonia with early dyskinesia progressing to quadriplegia"
Documents progression from dyskinesia to quadriplegia across all four affected children.
Nervous System 8
Epileptic Encephalopathy HP:0200134 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Epileptic encephalopathy (HP:0200134). HP:0200134 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"PIGP mutations are consistently associated with an epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy with the features of early infantile epileptic encephalopathy"
Names the epileptic encephalopathy phenotype directly.
Infantile Spasms HP:0012469 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Infantile spasms (HP:0012469). HP:0012469 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"associated with infantile spasms, focal, tonic, and tonic-clonic seizures and a burst suppression EEG pattern"
Names infantile spasms within the reported seizure repertoire.
EEG with Burst Suppression HP:0010851 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is EEG with burst suppression (HP:0010851). HP:0010851 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"4 children with a severe early-onset epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy, with suppression burst EEG"
Documents the burst-suppression EEG in the reported cohort.
Profound Global Developmental Delay HP:0012736 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Profound global developmental delay (HP:0012736). HP:0012736 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:28334793 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Both children presented with early-onset refractory seizures, hypotonia, and profound global developmental delay, reminiscent of other IGD phenotypes."
Names profound global developmental delay as a core feature.
Dyskinesia HP:0100660 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Dyskinesia (HP:0100660), qualified as course progressive. HP:0100660 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Course: PROGRESSIVE
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"The 4 affected children exhibited a severe neurodevelopmental disorder featuring severe hypotonia with early dyskinesia progressing to quadriplegia"
Documents the dyskinesia and its progression to quadriplegia.
Thin Corpus Callosum HP:0033725 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Thin corpus callosum (HP:0033725). HP:0033725 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Brain MRI at 3 months showed mildly reduced white matter bulk with thin corpus callosum, ventriculomegaly, and dilated frontotemporal subarachnoid space"
Names thin corpus callosum on the earliest reported imaging.
Ventriculomegaly HP:0002119 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Ventriculomegaly (HP:0002119). HP:0002119 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Brain MRI at 3 months showed mildly reduced white matter bulk with thin corpus callosum, ventriculomegaly, and dilated frontotemporal subarachnoid space"
Names ventriculomegaly on early imaging.
Cerebral Atrophy HP:0002059 Human Phenotype Ontology (HP) Relation: this clinical feature is this phenotype This clinical feature is Cerebral atrophy (HP:0002059), qualified as course progressive. HP:0002059 is a phenotype from the Human Phenotype Ontology.
Course: PROGRESSIVE
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Brain MRI at 7 months revealed diffuse atrophy, with frontal lobe predominance, diffuse high signal intensity in the white matter, and thin corpus callosum"
Documents diffuse cerebral atrophy and white matter signal change on later imaging in the same patient.
🧬

Genetic Associations

1
PIGP
Gene: PIGP hgnc:3046 HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (hgnc) Relation: this disease-associated gene is this gene This disease-associated gene is PIGP (hgnc:3046). hgnc:3046 is a gene from the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee. relationship_type: CAUSATIVE
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:37125481 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"the initial stage of their biosynthesis is mediated by PIGA, PIGC, PIGH, PIGP, PIGQ, PIGY, and DMP2 genes, which have been linked to a wide spectrum of phenotypes depending on the gene damaged"
Places PIGP among the genes of the first stage of GPI biosynthesis and grounds the phenotypic comparison to its complex partners.
💊

Medical Actions

4
Antiseizure Medication
Action: PharmacotherapyNCI Thesaurus (NCIT) Relation: this treatment is this clinical intervention This treatment is Pharmacotherapy (NCIT:C15986). NCIT:C15986 is a clinical intervention from the NCI Thesaurus. NCIT:C15986
Platform: Small molecule
Seizure control is the mainstay of management, and it is difficult: the epilepsy is described as refractory in every reported patient. No anticonvulsant has been shown to work better than others in PIGP deficiency specifically, and no such claim is made here.
Mechanism Target:
MODULATES Refractory Early-Onset Epilepsy — Symptomatic seizure suppression. It does not address the GPI-anchor lesion and does not alter the developmental trajectory.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Several combinations of antiepileptic drugs (including valproate, phenobarbital, phenytoin, topiramate, carbamazepine, vigabatrin, levetiracetam, rufinamide, clonazepam, and lorazepam) failed to control seizures"
Documents both that antiseizure medication is the treatment attempted and that it fails — which is also the evidence for calling the epilepsy refractory, a claim this entry makes in a node name.
Pyridoxine Supplementation
Action: PharmacotherapyNCI Thesaurus (NCIT) Relation: this treatment is this clinical intervention This treatment is Pharmacotherapy (NCIT:C15986). NCIT:C15986 is a clinical intervention from the NCI Thesaurus. NCIT:C15986
Agent: pyridoxine CHEBI:16709 Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (CHEBI) Relation: this treatment uses this therapeutic agent This treatment uses pyridoxine (CHEBI:16709). CHEBI:16709 is a therapeutic agent from Chemical Entities of Biological Interest.
Platform: Small molecule
Pyridoxine (vitamin B6) supplementation, named among the nutritional options across congenital disorders of glycosylation. The evidence is at the level of the CDG group, not of PIGP: no trial or case series has tested it in PIGP deficiency, and this entry does not imply one has. Recorded as a small molecule rather than a dietary measure, because that is what it is.
Show evidence (2 references)
PMID:35562242 SUPPORT INDIRECT Human Clinical
"We review the dietary management in CDG with a focus on two subgroups: N-linked glycosylation defects and GPI-anchor disorders."
Establishes that dietary management is discussed for the GPI-anchor subgroup that PIGP deficiency belongs to. Graded INDIRECT because the claim reaches PIGP only through subgroup membership, not through data in PIGP patients.
PMID:35562242 SUPPORT INDIRECT Human Clinical
"Specific nutritional treatment options for certain CDG types include oral supplementation of monosaccharide sugars, manganese, uridine, or pyridoxine."
Names pyridoxine among the nutritional options in congenital disorders of glycosylation. Note the sentence says "certain CDG types" — it does not say PIGP is one of them, which is why this is INDIRECT.
Ketogenic Diet
Action: Dietary InterventionNCI Thesaurus (NCIT) Relation: this treatment is this clinical intervention This treatment is Dietary Intervention (NCIT:C15447). NCIT:C15447 is a clinical intervention from the NCI Thesaurus. NCIT:C15447
Platform: Behavioral / lifestyle
The ketogenic diet, the other empiric intervention discussed for the GPI-anchor subgroup of congenital disorders of glycosylation. Same caveat as pyridoxine: the evidence is group-level, and no study has tested it in PIGP deficiency.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:35562242 SUPPORT INDIRECT Human Clinical
"Ketogenic diet is most frequently used in GPI anchor defects"
States that the ketogenic diet is the intervention most often used in the GPI-anchor defects, the subgroup PIGP deficiency belongs to. INDIRECT because the claim reaches PIGP only through subgroup membership — the sentence names the group, not this gene.
Gastrostomy and Feeding Support
Action: Surgical ProcedureNCI Thesaurus (NCIT) Relation: this treatment is this clinical intervention This treatment is Surgical Procedure (NCIT:C15329). NCIT:C15329 is a clinical intervention from the NCI Thesaurus. NCIT:C15329
Platform: Surgery
Enteral feeding support. For a disorder in which no reported patient achieves independent development and antiseizure medication fails, this and rehabilitative care are most of what management actually consists of, so leaving it out would misrepresent the clinical picture.
Mechanism Target:
MODULATES Profound Developmental Impairment — Supportive management of the feeding difficulty that follows the neurological impairment. It does not address the underlying lesion.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy was performed at age 7 months"
Documents gastrostomy in a reported patient.
🔬

Diagnosis

3
Flow cytometry for GPI-anchored protein surface expression
Measurement of GPI-anchored protein levels on circulating granulocytes by flow cytometry. CD16 was proposed as a marker on the strength of its reduction in affected individuals; note this is a screening test for inherited GPI deficiency as a group, not a PIGP-specific test.
Show evidence (2 references)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"CD16 is a valuable marker to support a genetic diagnosis of inherited GPI deficiencies."
States the diagnostic proposal in the authors' own words, including that it supports rather than establishes the genetic diagnosis.
PMID:31139695 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Flow cytometry of patient granulocytes confirmed reduced expression of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins as functional consequence."
Second independent use of the same granulocyte assay to confirm a PIGP diagnosis.
Serum alkaline phosphatase (a negative, not a screen)
Hyperphosphatasia is strong evidence of an inherited GPI deficiency when present, but it arises from defects in the *later* steps of GPI biosynthesis and anchor remodelling — Mabry syndrome being the type case. PIGP acts at the first step, so a normal alkaline phosphatase does not argue against this diagnosis. Recorded here because using hyperphosphatasia as a screening test would systematically miss early-pathway defects like this one.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:25803904 SUPPORT Other
"Hyperphosphatasia is observed in some patients with IGDs, such as hyperphosphatasia mental retardation syndrome or Mabry syndrome, caused by mutations in genes in the later stage of GPI biosynthesis."
Localizes hyperphosphatasia to late-stage pathway defects, which is why it is unreliable for an early-step gene such as PIGP.
Whole-exome sequencing
Molecular diagnosis. Every reported family was ascertained by exome sequencing; the phenotype is not distinctive enough among the inherited GPI deficiencies to point at PIGP without sequencing.
Show evidence (2 references)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"We studied clinical features, EEG, brain MRI scans, whole-exome sequencing (WES), and measured the expression of a subset of GPI-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) in circulating granulocytes using flow cytometry."
Describes the diagnostic workup used to establish the diagnosis.
PMID:31139695 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"panel for epileptic encephalopathies (100 genes including PIGA, PIGG, PIGN, and PIGT) did not reveal an underlying pathogenic mutation"
A targeted epilepsy panel that carried four other PIG genes but not PIGP returned negative in a patient who turned out to have PIGP deficiency. This is the practical reason exome or genome sequencing is required rather than a panel — a negative epilepsy panel does not exclude this diagnosis.
📈

Progression

2
Infancy
Age: 0-12 months
Onset of refractory seizures with severe hypotonia and, in the largest family, early dyskinetic movements.
Childhood
Age: 1-12 years
Dyskinesia progressing to quadriplegia with profound developmental disability. Two of the four affected children in the largest reported family died prematurely between ages 2 and 12 years; the surviving two were aged 2 years 7 months and 7 years 4 months at report.
Show evidence (3 references)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"Two of the children died prematurely between age 2 and 12 years; the remaining 2 children are aged 2 years 7 months and 7 years 4 months."
Documents childhood mortality and the ages of the surviving patients.
PMID:38456468 SUPPORT INDIRECT Human Clinical
"for all individuals, 15 of whom were deceased at the time of writing"
Group-level mortality across 83 inherited GPI deficiency patients, giving a denominator the PIGP-specific reports cannot. INDIRECT because it is an inherited-GPI-deficiency figure rather than a PIGP one.
PMID:38456468 SUPPORT INDIRECT Human Clinical
"Individuals with variants in synthesis stage genes of the GPI-AP exhibited a significantly shorter time to seizure onset than individuals with variants in transamidase and remodelling stage genes"
The cohort found that variants in synthesis-stage GPI genes give a significantly shorter time to seizure onset than transamidase- or remodelling-stage genes. PIGP is a synthesis-stage gene, which is a group-level reason to expect the early onset this entry describes.
📊

Prevalence

2
Worldwide, published cases
Cases In Literature Ultra Rare
Seven patients had been reported as of the 2023 report that states this count, with two further siblings added by that paper. No incidence or prevalence estimate exists for PIGP deficiency specifically.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:37125481 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"To date, the PIGP gene has only been related to Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55 (MIM#617599) in just seven patients."
Gives the size of the published cohort at the time of that report.
Patients with developmental delay (inherited GPI deficiencies as a group)
Unknown 150.0 per 100,000 >1 in 1,000
This is the figure for inherited GPI deficiencies as a whole within a developmental-delay cohort, not for PIGP deficiency, which is a small fraction of that group. It is recorded because it is the only denominator-bearing estimate available anywhere near this disorder, and should not be read as a PIGP-specific rate. Two grading notes. `ABOVE_1_IN_1000` is the band that contains 150 per 100,000 (the schema puts 10-99 per 100,000 in BAND_1_5_PER_10000). `measure_type` is UNKNOWN rather than POINT_PREVALENCE or ANNUAL_INCIDENCE because the quoted source calls it an "incidence" while the figure is really a diagnostic yield within an ascertained cohort, and neither prevalence nor incidence describes that honestly.
Show evidence (1 reference)
PMID:32042915 SUPPORT Human Clinical
"A ∼0.15% incidence of IGDs in patients with developmental delay has been reported in the large Deciphering Developmental Disorders study cohort."
Provides the group-level frequency of inherited GPI deficiencies in a developmental-delay cohort.
{ }

Source YAML

click to show
name: Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55
creation_date: "2026-08-31T21:45:00Z"
category: Mendelian
synonyms:
- DEE55
- early infantile epileptic encephalopathy 55
- EIEE55
- PIGP deficiency
- PIGP-related inherited GPI deficiency
disease_term:
  preferred_term: developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, 55
  term:
    id: MONDO:0033364
    label: developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, 55
parents:
- Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation
- Inborn Error of Metabolism
- Epilepsy
description: >
  Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy 55 (DEE55) is an autosomal
  recessive inherited GPI deficiency caused by biallelic variants in PIGP.
  PIGP encodes a subunit of the GPI-GlcNAc transferase complex, the enzyme
  that catalyses the first step of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor
  biosynthesis in the endoplasmic reticulum. More than 150 human proteins
  reach the cell surface tethered by a GPI anchor, many of them with roles in
  neurogenesis and synaptic function, so a partial block at the first
  committed step reduces the surface density of that whole protein class
  rather than removing a single gene product. The clinical result is
  early-onset refractory epilepsy — infantile spasms, focal, tonic and
  tonic-clonic seizures, often with a burst-suppression EEG — together with
  severe hypotonia and profound global developmental delay. Dyskinetic
  movement progressing to quadriplegia was prominent in the largest reported
  family, and premature death in childhood has been reported. The phenotype
  has since been extended to a presentation of multiple congenital
  anomalies with hypotonia and seizures, matching what is seen for other
  genes in the same first-step complex. Reduced surface expression of a GPI-anchored protein —
  CD16 on granulocytes — is measurable by flow cytometry and supports the
  diagnosis. The disorder is ultra-rare: fewer than a dozen patients have been
  published since the gene was first linked to human disease in 2017.
notes: >
  Ultra-rare, and the counts matter. The disease-defining report is two
  siblings with compound heterozygous PIGP variants (Johnstone et al., Hum Mol
  Genet 2017); a large consanguineous family added four affected children
  homozygous for c.384del (Vetro et al., Neurol Genet 2020); a 2023 report
  states that PIGP had been related to DEE55 in just seven patients at that
  point and adds two more siblings with a multiple congenital
  anomalies-hypotonia-seizures presentation. Every number in this entry is
  therefore a count of patients, not a frequency, and `frequency` is left
  unset throughout rather than computed from a cohort this size.

  Two things this entry is deliberately careful about:

  First, the mechanism is a *reduction* in the surface density of a whole
  class of proteins, not the loss of one effector. That is why the
  pathophysiology chain runs through "reduced GPI-anchored protein surface
  expression" as a single node rather than naming individual GPI-anchored
  proteins: with over 150 of them, and no experiment attributing the seizure
  phenotype to any particular one, naming a culprit would assert more than
  the sources do. CD16 appears in the entry as a measured readout and
  diagnostic marker, not as the pathogenic protein.

  Second, complete PIGP loss is probably not a viable disease state. The
  reported alleles are hypomorphic in effect — the founding siblings retained
  reduced but detectable PIGP mRNA, and the recurrent c.384del is predicted to
  produce a longer-than-wild-type protein with impaired rather than absent
  functionality. The entry says "reduced", not "abolished", throughout.

  No `conforms_to` was declared. `kb/` covers several other inherited GPI
  deficiencies (Mabry syndrome, CHIME syndrome, multiple congenital
  anomalies-hypotonia-seizures syndrome) but there is no GPI-anchor
  biosynthesis module to conform to. Those entries plus this one are the
  natural first conformers if such a module is created; see the knowledge gap
  recorded below.

  **Deep-research provenance.** An OpenScientist run
  (`research/Developmental_and_Epileptic_Encephalopathy_55-deep-research-openscientist.md`,
  12/12 references resolved with a confabulation rate of 0.0; of the 12
  assessed for relevance the validator scored 7 as on topic and left the
  remaining 5 unscored rather than judging them off topic) is committed
  alongside this entry and contributed four sources that first-pass curation from the primary
  papers had missed: the second family with the recurrent c.456delA allele
  (PMID:31139695), the group-level constraint that complete GPI deficiency is
  embryonic lethal (PMID:25803904), the large inherited-GPI-deficiency cohort
  (PMID:38456468), and the nutritional-intervention review behind the
  treatments block (PMID:35562242). Every quote used was re-verified against
  the fetched reference cache rather than taken from the report.

  One preflight note for whoever reads that report next: `just preflight-dr`
  warns that "GPI" is a rival gene mentioned 72 times. That is a false
  positive — "GPI" here is glycosylphosphatidylinositol, the anchor, not GPI
  the glucose-6-phosphate isomerase gene. The report's OMIM number matches
  MONDO's.
classifications:
  icimd_category:
  - classification_value: lipid_glycosylation
    notes: >-
      ICIMD (Ferreira et al. 2021, PMID:33340416) group "Disorders of lipid
      glycosylation", which the classification explicitly scopes to include
      glycosylphosphatidylinositol biosynthesis. PIGP acts at the first step
      of GPI anchor assembly.
inheritance:
- name: Autosomal recessive
  inheritance_term:
    preferred_term: Autosomal recessive inheritance
    term:
      id: HP:0000007
      label: Autosomal recessive inheritance
  description: >
    Reported patients are compound heterozygous or, in a consanguineous
    family, homozygous for PIGP variants. Inherited GPI deficiencies as a
    group are autosomal recessive, with PIGA the single X-linked exception.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:28334793
    reference_title: "Compound heterozygous mutations in the gene PIGP are associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "This work associates mutations in the PIGP gene with a novel autosomal recessive IGD, and expands our knowledge of the role of PIG genes in human development."
    explanation: >
      States the inheritance mode and places the disorder in the inherited
      GPI deficiency group.
prevalence:
- population: Worldwide, published cases
  measure_type: CASES_IN_LITERATURE
  prevalence_class: ULTRA_RARE
  notes: >-
    Seven patients had been reported as of the 2023 report that states this
    count, with two further siblings added by that paper. No incidence or
    prevalence estimate exists for PIGP deficiency specifically.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:37125481
    reference_title: "Expanding the phenotype of PIGP deficiency to multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures syndrome."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "To date, the PIGP gene has only been related to Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55 (MIM#617599) in just seven patients."
    explanation: >-
      Gives the size of the published cohort at the time of that report.
- population: Patients with developmental delay (inherited GPI deficiencies as a group)
  measure_type: UNKNOWN
  prevalence_class: ABOVE_1_IN_1000
  rate_per_100000: 150.0
  notes: >-
    This is the figure for inherited GPI deficiencies as a whole within a
    developmental-delay cohort, not for PIGP deficiency, which is a small
    fraction of that group. It is recorded because it is the only
    denominator-bearing estimate available anywhere near this disorder, and
    should not be read as a PIGP-specific rate.

    Two grading notes. `ABOVE_1_IN_1000` is the band that contains 150 per
    100,000 (the schema puts 10-99 per 100,000 in BAND_1_5_PER_10000).
    `measure_type` is UNKNOWN rather than POINT_PREVALENCE or ANNUAL_INCIDENCE
    because the quoted source calls it an "incidence" while the figure is
    really a diagnostic yield within an ascertained cohort, and neither
    prevalence nor incidence describes that honestly.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "A ∼0.15% incidence of IGDs in patients with developmental delay has been reported in the large Deciphering Developmental Disorders study cohort."
    explanation: >-
      Provides the group-level frequency of inherited GPI deficiencies in a
      developmental-delay cohort.
pathophysiology:
- name: Biallelic PIGP Variants
  biological_scale: MOLECULAR
  description: >
    Compound heterozygous or homozygous PIGP variants. Reported alleles
    include c.74T>C (p.Met25Thr) with c.456delA (p.Glu153AsnFs*34) in the
    founding siblings, a recurrent homozygous c.384del in a large inbred
    family, and a start-codon variant in trans with a 136 kb deletion removing
    the whole gene. The effect is reduction rather than abolition of PIGP
    function: patient cells retained reduced PIGP mRNA, and c.384del is
    predicted to yield a longer-than-wild-type protein with impaired
    functionality rather than no protein at all.
  genes:
  - preferred_term: PIGP
    term:
      id: hgnc:3046
      label: PIGP
    modifier: DECREASED
  genetic_context:
    description: >-
      Germline biallelic PIGP alleles spanning missense, frameshift,
      start-loss and a 136 kb whole-gene deletion. Both compound heterozygous
      and homozygous families are reported, so `zygosity` is deliberately
      left unset rather than picking one — the slot is single-valued and
      either value would misdescribe half the cohort. The disease state is a
      partial rather than complete loss of function.
    allelic_events:
    - MISSENSE_VARIANT
    - FRAMESHIFT_VARIANT
    - DELETION
    - COPY_NUMBER_LOSS
    variant_origin: GERMLINE
    functional_impact_category: PARTIAL_LOSS_OF_FUNCTION
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:28334793
    reference_title: "Compound heterozygous mutations in the gene PIGP are associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Here, we report two siblings with compound heterozygous variants in the gene phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class P (PIGP) (NM_153681.2: c.74T > C;p.Met25Thr and c.456delA;p.Glu153AsnFs*34)."
    explanation: >
      Establishes the founding genotype.
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "The homozygous c.384del variant of PIGP, present in the 4 patients, introduces a frame shift 6 codons before the expected stop signal and is predicted to result in the synthesis of a protein longer than the wild type, with impaired functionality."
    explanation: >
      Documents the recurrent homozygous allele and its predicted partial
      rather than null consequence, which is why this node is a reduction
      rather than an abolition.
  - reference: PMID:31139695
    reference_title: "Biallelic mutations in PIGP cause developmental and epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Here, we report the second family with a markedly overlapping phenotype due to a homozygous frameshift mutation (c.456delA;p.Glu153Asnfs*34) in PIGP."
    explanation: >
      Independent replication in a second family, and the same c.456delA
      allele the founding siblings carried in compound heterozygous state —
      making it a recurrent loss-of-function allele across a very small
      patient population.
  - reference: PMID:25803904
    reference_title: "[Inherited GPI deficiencies:a new disease with intellectual disability and epilepsy]."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: OTHER
    snippet: "Patients with IGD have only a partial deficiency because complete GPI deficiency causes embryonic death."
    explanation: >
      Establishes at the group level why every viable patient genotype must
      be hypomorphic, which is the constraint that makes this node a
      reduction rather than an abolition.
  downstream:
  - target: Impaired First Step of GPI Anchor Biosynthesis
    description: >-
      PIGP is a subunit of the enzyme catalysing the first committed step of
      GPI anchor assembly.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT

- name: Impaired First Step of GPI Anchor Biosynthesis
  biological_scale: MOLECULAR
  description: >
    GPI anchor precursors are assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum through a
    multistep pathway and then transferred to target proteins, which are
    further remodelled in the ER and Golgi before reaching the cell surface.
    PIGP is a subunit of the complex that performs the first step of that
    pathway; reduced PIGP function throttles flux at the entry point, so the
    deficit is felt by every downstream GPI-anchored protein rather than by a
    subset.
  biological_processes:
  - preferred_term: GPI anchor biosynthetic process
    modifier: DECREASED
    term:
      id: GO:0006506
      label: GPI anchor biosynthetic process
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:28334793
    reference_title: "Compound heterozygous mutations in the gene PIGP are associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "PIGP encodes a subunit of the enzyme that catalyzes the first step of GPI anchor biosynthesis."
    explanation: >
      Places PIGP at the first step of the pathway, which is what makes the
      downstream effect class-wide.
  downstream:
  - target: Reduced GPI-Anchored Protein Surface Expression
    description: >-
      Less GPI anchor precursor is available to tether target proteins to the
      plasma membrane.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT

- name: Reduced GPI-Anchored Protein Surface Expression
  biological_scale: CELLULAR
  description: >
    The measurable cellular lesion. Patient cells show reduced surface levels
    of GPI-anchored proteins, and this is restored by exogenous expression of
    wild-type PIGP — the rescue that establishes causation rather than
    correlation. Because over 150 human proteins are GPI-anchored, the effect
    is a class-wide reduction in surface density. This entry deliberately does
    not name a single culprit protein: no experiment attributes the
    neurological phenotype to any particular GPI-anchored protein, and the
    sources do not.
  cell_types:
  - preferred_term: granulocyte
    term:
      id: CL:0000094
      label: granulocyte
  - preferred_term: neuron
    term:
      id: CL:0000540
      label: neuron
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:28334793
    reference_title: "Compound heterozygous mutations in the gene PIGP are associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: IN_VITRO
    snippet: "Functional studies with patient cells showed reduced PIGP mRNA levels, and an associated reduction of GPI-anchored cell surface proteins, which was rescued by exogenous expression of wild-type PIGP."
    explanation: >
      The rescue experiment establishes that reduced PIGP is what lowers
      GPI-anchored protein surface expression.
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "We demonstrated a reduced expression of the GPI-AP CD16 in the granulocytic membrane in affected individuals."
    explanation: >
      Independent confirmation of the cellular lesion in a second cohort,
      using a specific GPI-anchored protein as the readout.
  - reference: PMID:32156170
    reference_title: "Biosynthesis and biology of mammalian GPI-anchored proteins."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: OTHER
    snippet: "At least 150 human proteins are glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins (GPI-APs)."
    explanation: >
      Sources the size of the affected protein class, which is the claim that
      makes this node a class-wide reduction rather than the loss of any one
      protein — and therefore the reason the edge out of it carries unknown
      intermediates.
  - reference: PMID:31139695
    reference_title: "Biallelic mutations in PIGP cause developmental and epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Flow cytometry of patient granulocytes confirmed reduced expression of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins as functional consequence."
    explanation: >
      A third independent demonstration of the cellular lesion, in a family
      unrelated to either of the other two.
  downstream:
  - target: Disrupted Neurodevelopment and Cortical Network Excitability
    description: >-
      GPI-anchored proteins have prominent roles in neurogenesis and synaptic
      function; reduced surface density of the class disturbs both.
    causal_link_type: INDIRECT_UNKNOWN_INTERMEDIATES
    intermediate_mechanisms:
    - Which of the >150 GPI-anchored proteins mediates the neurological phenotype has not been determined

- name: Disrupted Neurodevelopment and Cortical Network Excitability
  biological_scale: TISSUE
  description: >
    GPI-anchored proteins play a variety of important roles in development and
    particularly in neurogenesis, and in synaptic function and plasticity.
    Reducing the surface density of that class during brain development
    produces a network that is both developmentally impaired and abnormally
    excitable — which is what a developmental and epileptic encephalopathy
    is: the epilepsy and the developmental impairment are two outputs of one
    lesion, not a cause and its consequence.
  biological_processes:
  - preferred_term: nervous system development
    modifier: DECREASED
    term:
      id: GO:0007399
      label: nervous system development
  - preferred_term: synaptic signaling
    modifier: DYSREGULATED
    term:
      id: GO:0099536
      label: synaptic signaling
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:28334793
    reference_title: "Compound heterozygous mutations in the gene PIGP are associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "These proteins play a variety of important roles in development, and particularly in neurogenesis."
    explanation: >
      Establishes the developmental role of the affected protein class, which
      is the basis for this node.
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "often playing a role in CNS development and synaptic function and plasticity"
    explanation: >
      Names both the developmental and the synaptic roles that this node
      combines.
  downstream:
  - target: Refractory Early-Onset Epilepsy
    description: >-
      An abnormally excitable immature cortical network generates
      pharmacoresistant seizures from early infancy.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
  - target: Thin Corpus Callosum
    description: Reduced white matter bulk from disturbed neurodevelopment.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
  - target: Ventriculomegaly
    description: Ex vacuo ventricular enlargement accompanying reduced parenchymal volume.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
  - target: Cerebral Atrophy
    description: >-
      Progressive loss of cerebral volume with frontal predominance,
      developing over the first months of life.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
  - target: Progressive Microcephaly
    description: >-
      Acquired microcephaly, the head-growth correlate of the parenchymal
      loss above.
    causal_link_type: INDIRECT_KNOWN_INTERMEDIATES
    intermediate_mechanisms:
    - Progressive loss of cerebral parenchymal volume
  - target: Profound Developmental Impairment
    description: >-
      Disturbed neurogenesis produces profound global developmental delay
      independent of, and in addition to, the seizure burden.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT

- name: Refractory Early-Onset Epilepsy
  biological_scale: ORGANISM
  description: >
    Early-onset refractory seizures are the presenting feature. The seizure
    repertoire reported includes infantile spasms and focal, tonic and
    tonic-clonic seizures, with a burst-suppression EEG pattern in the largest
    family.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:28334793
    reference_title: "Compound heterozygous mutations in the gene PIGP are associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Both children presented with early-onset refractory seizures, hypotonia, and profound global developmental delay, reminiscent of other IGD phenotypes."
    explanation: >
      Establishes refractory early-onset seizures as a core feature.
  downstream:
  - target: Epileptic Encephalopathy
    description: >-
      Sustained epileptic activity in an immature cortex, itself contributing
      to the developmental impairment.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
  - target: Infantile Spasms
    description: An age-dependent seizure semiology of the immature cortex.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
  - target: EEG with Burst Suppression
    description: The electrographic correlate of the severely disturbed network.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT

- name: Profound Developmental Impairment
  biological_scale: ORGANISM
  description: >
    Profound global developmental delay with severe hypotonia. In the large
    inbred family the course included early dyskinesia progressing to
    quadriplegia, and two of four affected children died prematurely between
    ages 2 and 12 years.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "PIGP mutations are consistently associated with an epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy with the features of early infantile epileptic encephalopathy with profound disability and premature death."
    explanation: >
      States the severity and outcome that define this node.
  downstream:
  - target: Profound Global Developmental Delay
    description: Disturbed neurogenesis expressed as global developmental failure.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
  - target: Generalized Hypotonia
    description: Central hypotonia present from early infancy.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
  - target: Dyskinesia
    description: >-
      Movement disorder progressing to quadriplegia, prominent in the largest
      reported family.
    causal_link_type: INDIRECT_UNKNOWN_INTERMEDIATES
    intermediate_mechanisms:
    - The basal ganglia or network substrate of the dyskinesia was not established
  - target: Spastic Tetraplegia
    description: The motor endpoint the early dyskinesia progresses to.
    causal_link_type: DIRECT
mechanistic_hypotheses:
- hypothesis_group_id: canonical_gpi_anchor_flux_reduction_model
  hypothesis_label: Canonical GPI Anchor Flux Reduction Model
  status: CANONICAL
  description: >-
    Biallelic hypomorphic PIGP variants reduce flux through the first
    committed step of GPI anchor biosynthesis, lowering the surface density of
    the whole class of GPI-anchored proteins; because that class is
    disproportionately important in neurogenesis and synaptic function, the
    result is a developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. The model is
    supported by the rescue of GPI-anchored protein surface expression by
    wild-type PIGP in patient cells, and by the independent demonstration of
    reduced granulocyte CD16 in a second cohort.
discussions:
- discussion_id: pigp_which_gpi_anchored_protein
  kind: KNOWLEDGE_GAP
  prompt: >-
    Which of the more than 150 GPI-anchored proteins, or which combination of
    them, mediates the epilepsy and the developmental impairment in PIGP
    deficiency?
  attaches_to:
  - pathophysiology#Reduced GPI-Anchored Protein Surface Expression
  - pathophysiology#Disrupted Neurodevelopment and Cortical Network Excitability
  rationale: >-
    The chain from reduced GPI anchor synthesis to a seizing, developmentally
    impaired cortex is currently a class-level argument: GPI-anchored proteins
    matter in neurogenesis, so reducing them all must matter. No study has
    identified the responsible protein or proteins. Until one does, the edge
    into the neurodevelopmental node has unknown intermediates, and no
    protein-specific therapeutic target can be named.
- discussion_id: pigp_genotype_phenotype_severity
  kind: KNOWLEDGE_GAP
  prompt: >-
    Does residual PIGP activity predict where a patient falls on the spectrum
    from DEE55 to the multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures
    presentation?
  attaches_to:
  - pathophysiology#Biallelic PIGP Variants
  rationale: >-
    The 2023 siblings, one of whom was a fetus with a severe malformation
    disorder terminated at 17 weeks, carried a start-codon variant in trans
    with a whole-gene deletion — plausibly the lowest residual activity
    reported. If severity tracks residual activity, that would both explain
    the phenotypic range within one gene and make a quantitative flow-cytometry
    readout prognostic rather than merely diagnostic. With fewer than a dozen
    patients published, the correlation cannot yet be tested.
- discussion_id: pigp_gpi_module_absent
  kind: KNOWLEDGE_GAP
  prompt: >-
    Should the shared GPI-anchor-biosynthesis lesion across PIGP, PIGA, PIGV,
    PIGQ, PIGY and related deficiencies be factored out as a mechanism module?
  attaches_to:
  - pathophysiology#Impaired First Step of GPI Anchor Biosynthesis
  rationale: >-
    The knowledge base already carries several inherited GPI deficiencies
    curated independently, each restating the same upstream chain. That is the
    pattern `kb/modules/` exists for. No such module exists yet, so this entry
    declares no `conforms_to`; recording the gap here is what makes the
    omission visible rather than looking like an oversight.
phenotypes:
- name: Epileptic Encephalopathy
  category: Neurological
  description: >
    Early-onset refractory epilepsy in which the epileptic activity itself
    contributes to the developmental impairment.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Epileptic encephalopathy
    term:
      id: HP:0200134
      label: Epileptic encephalopathy
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "PIGP mutations are consistently associated with an epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy with the features of early infantile epileptic encephalopathy"
    explanation: >
      Names the epileptic encephalopathy phenotype directly.
- name: Infantile Spasms
  category: Neurological
  description: >
    Epileptic spasms in infancy, part of the reported seizure repertoire.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Infantile spasms
    term:
      id: HP:0012469
      label: Infantile spasms
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "associated with infantile spasms, focal, tonic, and tonic-clonic seizures and a burst suppression EEG pattern"
    explanation: >
      Names infantile spasms within the reported seizure repertoire.
- name: EEG with Burst Suppression
  category: Neurological
  description: >
    Burst-suppression EEG pattern, reported in the large inbred family.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: EEG with burst suppression
    term:
      id: HP:0010851
      label: EEG with burst suppression
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "4 children with a severe early-onset epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy, with suppression burst EEG"
    explanation: >
      Documents the burst-suppression EEG in the reported cohort.
- name: Generalized Hypotonia
  category: Neuromuscular
  description: >
    Severe hypotonia, present from early infancy in all reported patients.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Generalized hypotonia
    term:
      id: HP:0001290
      label: Generalized hypotonia
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:28334793
    reference_title: "Compound heterozygous mutations in the gene PIGP are associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Both children presented with early-onset refractory seizures, hypotonia, and profound global developmental delay"
    explanation: >
      Names hypotonia as a presenting feature.
- name: Profound Global Developmental Delay
  category: Neurodevelopmental
  description: >
    Profound global developmental delay, with no reported patient achieving
    independent developmental milestones.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Profound global developmental delay
    term:
      id: HP:0012736
      label: Profound global developmental delay
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:28334793
    reference_title: "Compound heterozygous mutations in the gene PIGP are associated with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Both children presented with early-onset refractory seizures, hypotonia, and profound global developmental delay, reminiscent of other IGD phenotypes."
    explanation: >
      Names profound global developmental delay as a core feature.
- name: Dyskinesia
  category: Neurological
  description: >
    Early dyskinetic movements progressing to quadriplegia, prominent in the
    large inbred family and the feature that led those authors to call the
    syndrome epileptic-dyskinetic.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Dyskinesia
    term:
      id: HP:0100660
      label: Dyskinesia
    clinical_course: PROGRESSIVE
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "The 4 affected children exhibited a severe neurodevelopmental disorder featuring severe hypotonia with early dyskinesia progressing to quadriplegia"
    explanation: >
      Documents the dyskinesia and its progression to quadriplegia.
- name: Spastic Tetraplegia
  category: Neurological
  description: >
    Spastic quadriplegia, the state the early dyskinesia progresses to. It is
    the motor endpoint of the disease in the largest reported family.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Spastic tetraplegia
    term:
      id: HP:0002510
      label: Spastic tetraplegia
    clinical_course: PROGRESSIVE
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "The 4 affected children exhibited a severe neurodevelopmental disorder featuring severe hypotonia with early dyskinesia progressing to quadriplegia"
    explanation: >
      Documents progression from dyskinesia to quadriplegia across all four
      affected children.
- name: Thin Corpus Callosum
  category: Neuroimaging
  description: >
    Thin corpus callosum on brain MRI, reported at both 3 and 7 months in the
    same patient — so it is present early and persists rather than emerging
    with the atrophy.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Thin corpus callosum
    term:
      id: HP:0033725
      label: Thin corpus callosum
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Brain MRI at 3 months showed mildly reduced white matter bulk with thin corpus callosum, ventriculomegaly, and dilated frontotemporal subarachnoid space"
    explanation: >
      Names thin corpus callosum on the earliest reported imaging.
- name: Ventriculomegaly
  category: Neuroimaging
  description: >
    Enlarged cerebral ventricles on early brain MRI, accompanying the reduced
    white matter bulk.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Ventriculomegaly
    term:
      id: HP:0002119
      label: Ventriculomegaly
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Brain MRI at 3 months showed mildly reduced white matter bulk with thin corpus callosum, ventriculomegaly, and dilated frontotemporal subarachnoid space"
    explanation: >
      Names ventriculomegaly on early imaging.
- name: Cerebral Atrophy
  category: Neuroimaging
  description: >
    Diffuse cerebral atrophy with frontal predominance on later imaging,
    alongside diffuse white matter signal change. The progression from
    "mildly reduced white matter bulk" at 3 months to "diffuse atrophy" at 7
    months in the same patient is the imaging correlate of a developmental
    process rather than a static malformation.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Cerebral atrophy
    term:
      id: HP:0002059
      label: Cerebral atrophy
    clinical_course: PROGRESSIVE
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Brain MRI at 7 months revealed diffuse atrophy, with frontal lobe predominance, diffuse high signal intensity in the white matter, and thin corpus callosum"
    explanation: >
      Documents diffuse cerebral atrophy and white matter signal change on
      later imaging in the same patient.
- name: Progressive Microcephaly
  category: Neurological
  description: >
    Acquired microcephaly — head circumference falling to −2 SD — rather than
    a congenital small head. Consistent with the imaging course above.
  phenotype_term:
    preferred_term: Progressive microcephaly
    term:
      id: HP:0000253
      label: Progressive microcephaly
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "acquired microcephaly (OFC 50 cm, −2 SD), an unclassifiable form of epileptic encephalopathy with asymmetric burst suppression, and spastic quadriplegia"
    explanation: >
      Documents the acquired (progressive) nature of the microcephaly.

progression:
- phase: Infancy
  age_range: 0-12 months
  notes: >-
    Onset of refractory seizures with severe hypotonia and, in the largest
    family, early dyskinetic movements.
- phase: Childhood
  age_range: 1-12 years
  notes: >-
    Dyskinesia progressing to quadriplegia with profound developmental
    disability. Two of the four affected children in the largest reported
    family died prematurely between ages 2 and 12 years; the surviving two
    were aged 2 years 7 months and 7 years 4 months at report.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Two of the children died prematurely between age 2 and 12 years; the remaining 2 children are aged 2 years 7 months and 7 years 4 months."
    explanation: >-
      Documents childhood mortality and the ages of the surviving patients.
  - reference: PMID:38456468
    reference_title: "The clinical and genetic spectrum of inherited glycosylphosphatidylinositol deficiency disorders."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    directness: INDIRECT
    snippet: "for all individuals, 15 of whom were deceased at the time of writing"
    explanation: >-
      Group-level mortality across 83 inherited GPI deficiency patients,
      giving a denominator the PIGP-specific reports cannot. INDIRECT because
      it is an inherited-GPI-deficiency figure rather than a PIGP one.
  - reference: PMID:38456468
    reference_title: "The clinical and genetic spectrum of inherited glycosylphosphatidylinositol deficiency disorders."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    directness: INDIRECT
    snippet: "Individuals with variants in synthesis stage \ngenes of the GPI-AP exhibited a significantly shorter time to seizure onset than \nindividuals with variants in transamidase and remodelling stage genes"
    explanation: >-
      The cohort found that variants in synthesis-stage GPI genes give a
      significantly shorter time to seizure onset than transamidase- or
      remodelling-stage genes. PIGP is a synthesis-stage gene, which is a
      group-level reason to expect the early onset this entry describes.

genetic:
- name: PIGP
  gene_term:
    preferred_term: PIGP
    term:
      id: hgnc:3046
      label: PIGP
  relationship_type: CAUSATIVE
  notes: >
    PIGP encodes a subunit of the GPI-GlcNAc transferase complex catalysing
    the first step of GPI anchor biosynthesis. It is one of seven genes
    (PIGA, PIGC, PIGH, PIGP, PIGQ, PIGY, DPM2) mediating that initial stage,
    which is why the PIGP phenotype resembles those of PIGA, PIGQ and PIGY
    deficiency rather than those of later-step genes.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:37125481
    reference_title: "Expanding the phenotype of PIGP deficiency to multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures syndrome."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "the initial stage of their biosynthesis is mediated by PIGA, PIGC, PIGH, PIGP, PIGQ, PIGY, and DMP2 genes, which have been linked to a wide spectrum of phenotypes depending on the gene damaged"
    explanation: >
      Places PIGP among the genes of the first stage of GPI biosynthesis and
      grounds the phenotypic comparison to its complex partners.
diagnosis:
- name: Flow cytometry for GPI-anchored protein surface expression
  description: >
    Measurement of GPI-anchored protein levels on circulating granulocytes by
    flow cytometry. CD16 was proposed as a marker on the strength of its
    reduction in affected individuals; note this is a screening test for
    inherited GPI deficiency as a group, not a PIGP-specific test.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "CD16 is a valuable marker to support a genetic diagnosis of inherited GPI deficiencies."
    explanation: >
      States the diagnostic proposal in the authors' own words, including
      that it supports rather than establishes the genetic diagnosis.
  - reference: PMID:31139695
    reference_title: "Biallelic mutations in PIGP cause developmental and epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Flow cytometry of patient granulocytes confirmed reduced expression of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins as functional consequence."
    explanation: >
      Second independent use of the same granulocyte assay to confirm a PIGP
      diagnosis.
- name: Serum alkaline phosphatase (a negative, not a screen)
  description: >
    Hyperphosphatasia is strong evidence of an inherited GPI deficiency when
    present, but it arises from defects in the *later* steps of GPI
    biosynthesis and anchor remodelling — Mabry syndrome being the type case.
    PIGP acts at the first step, so a normal alkaline phosphatase does not
    argue against this diagnosis. Recorded here because using
    hyperphosphatasia as a screening test would systematically miss
    early-pathway defects like this one.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:25803904
    reference_title: "[Inherited GPI deficiencies:a new disease with intellectual disability and epilepsy]."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: OTHER
    snippet: "Hyperphosphatasia is observed in some patients with IGDs, such as hyperphosphatasia mental retardation syndrome or Mabry syndrome, caused by mutations in genes in the later stage of GPI biosynthesis."
    explanation: >
      Localizes hyperphosphatasia to late-stage pathway defects, which is why
      it is unreliable for an early-step gene such as PIGP.
- name: Whole-exome sequencing
  description: >
    Molecular diagnosis. Every reported family was ascertained by exome
    sequencing; the phenotype is not distinctive enough among the inherited
    GPI deficiencies to point at PIGP without sequencing.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "We studied clinical features, EEG, brain MRI scans, whole-exome sequencing (WES), and measured the expression of a subset of GPI-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) in circulating granulocytes using flow cytometry."
    explanation: >
      Describes the diagnostic workup used to establish the diagnosis.
  - reference: PMID:31139695
    reference_title: "Biallelic mutations in PIGP cause developmental and epileptic encephalopathy."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "panel for epileptic encephalopathies (100 genes including PIGA, PIGG, PIGN, and PIGT) did not reveal an underlying pathogenic mutation"
    explanation: >
      A targeted epilepsy panel that carried four other PIG genes but not
      PIGP returned negative in a patient who turned out to have PIGP
      deficiency. This is the practical reason exome or genome sequencing is
      required rather than a panel — a negative epilepsy panel does not
      exclude this diagnosis.

treatments:
- name: Antiseizure Medication
  description: >
    Seizure control is the mainstay of management, and it is difficult: the
    epilepsy is described as refractory in every reported patient. No
    anticonvulsant has been shown to work better than others in PIGP
    deficiency specifically, and no such claim is made here.
  therapeutic_modality: SMALL_MOLECULE
  treatment_term:
    preferred_term: Pharmacotherapy
    term:
      id: NCIT:C15986
      label: Pharmacotherapy
  target_mechanisms:
  - target: Refractory Early-Onset Epilepsy
    treatment_effect: MODULATES
    description: >-
      Symptomatic seizure suppression. It does not address the GPI-anchor
      lesion and does not alter the developmental trajectory.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "Several combinations of antiepileptic drugs (including valproate, phenobarbital, phenytoin, topiramate, carbamazepine, vigabatrin, levetiracetam, rufinamide, clonazepam, and lorazepam) failed to control seizures"
    explanation: >
      Documents both that antiseizure medication is the treatment attempted
      and that it fails — which is also the evidence for calling the epilepsy
      refractory, a claim this entry makes in a node name.
- name: Pyridoxine Supplementation
  description: >
    Pyridoxine (vitamin B6) supplementation, named among the nutritional
    options across congenital disorders of glycosylation. The evidence is at
    the level of the CDG group, not of PIGP: no trial or case series has
    tested it in PIGP deficiency, and this entry does not imply one has.
    Recorded as a small molecule rather than a dietary measure, because that
    is what it is.
  therapeutic_modality: SMALL_MOLECULE
  treatment_term:
    preferred_term: Pharmacotherapy
    term:
      id: NCIT:C15986
      label: Pharmacotherapy
    therapeutic_agent:
    - preferred_term: pyridoxine
      term:
        id: CHEBI:16709
        label: pyridoxine
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:35562242
    reference_title: "Nutrition interventions in congenital disorders of glycosylation."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    directness: INDIRECT
    snippet: "We review the dietary management in CDG with a focus on two subgroups: N-linked glycosylation defects and GPI-anchor disorders."
    explanation: >
      Establishes that dietary management is discussed for the GPI-anchor
      subgroup that PIGP deficiency belongs to. Graded INDIRECT because the
      claim reaches PIGP only through subgroup membership, not through data
      in PIGP patients.
  - reference: PMID:35562242
    reference_title: "Nutrition interventions in congenital disorders of glycosylation."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    directness: INDIRECT
    snippet: "Specific nutritional treatment options for certain CDG types include oral supplementation of monosaccharide sugars, manganese, uridine, or pyridoxine."
    explanation: >
      Names pyridoxine among the nutritional options in congenital disorders
      of glycosylation. Note the sentence says "certain CDG types" — it does
      not say PIGP is one of them, which is why this is INDIRECT.
- name: Ketogenic Diet
  description: >
    The ketogenic diet, the other empiric intervention discussed for the
    GPI-anchor subgroup of congenital disorders of glycosylation. Same
    caveat as pyridoxine: the evidence is group-level, and no study has
    tested it in PIGP deficiency.
  therapeutic_modality: BEHAVIORAL
  treatment_term:
    preferred_term: Dietary Intervention
    term:
      id: NCIT:C15447
      label: Dietary Intervention
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:35562242
    reference_title: "Nutrition interventions in congenital disorders of glycosylation."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    directness: INDIRECT
    snippet: "Ketogenic diet is most frequently used in GPI anchor defects"
    explanation: >
      States that the ketogenic diet is the intervention most often used in
      the GPI-anchor defects, the subgroup PIGP deficiency belongs to.
      INDIRECT because the claim reaches PIGP only through subgroup
      membership — the sentence names the group, not this gene.
- name: Gastrostomy and Feeding Support
  description: >
    Enteral feeding support. For a disorder in which no reported patient
    achieves independent development and antiseizure medication fails, this
    and rehabilitative care are most of what management actually consists of,
    so leaving it out would misrepresent the clinical picture.
  therapeutic_modality: SURGERY
  treatment_term:
    preferred_term: Surgical Procedure
    term:
      id: NCIT:C15329
      label: Surgical Procedure
  target_mechanisms:
  - target: Profound Developmental Impairment
    treatment_effect: MODULATES
    description: >-
      Supportive management of the feeding difficulty that follows the
      neurological impairment. It does not address the underlying lesion.
  evidence:
  - reference: PMID:32042915
    reference_title: "Early infantile epileptic-dyskinetic encephalopathy due to biallelic PIGP mutations."
    supports: SUPPORT
    evidence_source: HUMAN_CLINICAL
    snippet: "percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy was performed at age 7 months"
    explanation: >
      Documents gastrostomy in a reported patient.
📚

References & Deep Research

Deep Research

1

Deep research results are used as seeds for research; they do not undergo the same validation as the main records and may contain errors. How we use deep research.

Evaluations and curation notes (3)

Record notes

Ultra-rare, and the counts matter. The disease-defining report is two siblings with compound heterozygous PIGP variants (Johnstone et al., Hum Mol Genet 2017); a large consanguineous family added four affected children homozygous for c.384del (Vetro et al., Neurol Genet 2020); a 2023 report states that PIGP had been related to DEE55 in just seven patients at that point and adds two more siblings with a multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures presentation. Every number in this entry is therefore a count of patients, not a frequency, and `frequency` is left unset throughout rather than computed from a cohort this size. Two things this entry is deliberately careful about: First, the mechanism is a *reduction* in the surface density of a whole class of proteins, not the loss of one effector. That is why the pathophysiology chain runs through "reduced GPI-anchored protein surface expression" as a single node rather than naming individual GPI-anchored proteins: with over 150 of them, and no experiment attributing the seizure phenotype to any particular one, naming a culprit would assert more than the sources do. CD16 appears in the entry as a measured readout and diagnostic marker, not as the pathogenic protein. Second, complete PIGP loss is probably not a viable disease state. The reported alleles are hypomorphic in effect — the founding siblings retained reduced but detectable PIGP mRNA, and the recurrent c.384del is predicted to produce a longer-than-wild-type protein with impaired rather than absent functionality. The entry says "reduced", not "abolished", throughout. No `conforms_to` was declared. `kb/` covers several other inherited GPI deficiencies (Mabry syndrome, CHIME syndrome, multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures syndrome) but there is no GPI-anchor biosynthesis module to conform to. Those entries plus this one are the natural first conformers if such a module is created; see the knowledge gap recorded below. **Deep-research provenance.** An OpenScientist run (`research/Developmental_and_Epileptic_Encephalopathy_55-deep-research-openscientist.md`, 12/12 references resolved with a confabulation rate of 0.0; of the 12 assessed for relevance the validator scored 7 as on topic and left the remaining 5 unscored rather than judging them off topic) is committed alongside this entry and contributed four sources that first-pass curation from the primary papers had missed: the second family with the recurrent c.456delA allele (PMID:31139695), the group-level constraint that complete GPI deficiency is embryonic lethal (PMID:25803904), the large inherited-GPI-deficiency cohort (PMID:38456468), and the nutritional-intervention review behind the treatments block (PMID:35562242). Every quote used was re-verified against the fetched reference cache rather than taken from the report. One preflight note for whoever reads that report next: `just preflight-dr` warns that "GPI" is a rival gene mentioned 72 times. That is a false positive — "GPI" here is glycosylphosphatidylinositol, the anchor, not GPI the glucose-6-phosphate isomerase gene. The report's OMIM number matches MONDO's.

Review response: prevalence band, neuroimaging phenotypes, pathograph, allelic events · 2026-09-04T14:32:59Z · View source

Three review-response sessions on PR #10303, following the CREATE record. Round 1 connected all six phenotypes to the pathograph with bare-name downstream targets from the two ORGANISM-level nodes. Round 2 addressed the remaining blocking items: prevalence_class corrected from BAND_1_5_PER_10000 to ABOVE_1_IN_1000 to match its own rate_per_100000 of 150.0, with measure_type regraded to UNKNOWN because the source word is incidence but the figure is a diagnostic yield inside an ascertained cohort; five phenotypes added from the cached full text of PMID:32042915 (thin corpus callosum HP:0033725, ventriculomegaly HP:0002119, cerebral atrophy HP:0002059, progressive microcephaly HP:0000253, spastic tetraplegia HP:0002510); the claim that more than 150 GPI-anchored proteins exist was cited to PMID:32156170, consuming a reference the PR had fetched and left unused; genetic_context allele_type SNV and zygosity COMPOUND_HETEROZYGOUS were replaced by the structured allelic_events list covering missense, frameshift, deletion and copy-number loss, with zygosity left unset and the reason recorded; and the Antiseizure Medication treatment was given the ten-failed-agents sentence that also substantiates the word refractory in a node name. Round 3 fixed two claim-evidence inaccuracies in committed content: the Ketogenic Diet snippet quoted a sentence that never mentions the ketogenic diet and was replaced with the sentence naming it directly, and the deep-research provenance note claimed 12 of 12 references resolved with none off topic where the report frontmatter records on_topic 7 of 12 assessed with no off_topic key at all. Validated with just validate (41 of 41 snippets verified), validate-terms, check-entity-refs, check-duplicate-keys, check-enum-values, check-folded-hyphens, check-snippet-length, check-title-snippets and check-snippet-grading.

Create: Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55 · 2026-08-31T21:51:23Z · View source

De-novo curation of DEE55 (MONDO:0033364, PIGP) resolving curation claim #10292. Pathograph runs biallelic hypomorphic PIGP variants -> impaired first step of GPI anchor biosynthesis -> reduced GPI-anchored protein surface expression -> disrupted neurodevelopment and cortical excitability -> refractory epilepsy plus profound developmental impairment. The edge into the neurodevelopmental node is marked INDIRECT_UNKNOWN_INTERMEDIATES because no study attributes the phenotype to any of the >150 GPI-anchored proteins; that is recorded as a knowledge gap rather than papered over. Two further gaps recorded: genotype-severity correlation across the DEE55-to-MCAHS spectrum, and the absence of a GPI-anchor-biosynthesis module in kb/modules/ (so no conforms_to was declared). Deep research: one OpenScientist run, committed, 12/12 references resolved with none off topic; it contributed PMID:31139695 (second family, recurrent c.456delA), PMID:25803904 (complete GPI deficiency is embryonic lethal, which grounds the hypomorphic framing), PMID:38456468 and PMID:35562242 (treatments). All quotes were re-verified against the fetched reference cache, not taken from the report. just preflight-dr warns that GPI is a rival gene at 72 mentions; that is a false positive - GPI there is the anchor, not the glucose-6-phosphate isomerase gene - and the report OMIM matches MONDO. One error caught during curation: hgnc:8967 is PIGN, not PIGP; the correct id is hgnc:3046, confirmed against the HGNC REST API after linkml-term-validator flagged the label mismatch. Validated with just validate (29/29 snippets verified), just validate-terms, check-entity-refs, check-duplicate-keys, check-enum-values, check-snippet-length, check-title-snippets, check-snippet-grading and check-folded-hyphens.

OpenScientist ▸
Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55 (DEE55 / PIGP Deficiency): A Comprehensive Disease Characteristics Report
openscientist-autonomous 12 citations 2026-08-31T21:29:14.867843

Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55 (DEE55 / PIGP Deficiency): A Comprehensive Disease Characteristics Report

Summary

Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55 (DEE55; OMIM #617599) is an ultra-rare, autosomal-recessive inherited glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) deficiency (IGD) caused by biallelic loss-of-function variants in PIGP (Phosphatidylinositol Glycan Anchor Biosynthesis, Class P; OMIM *605938; HGNC:3046; formerly DSCR5; located at 21q22.13). PIGP encodes an accessory subunit of the endoplasmic-reticulum GPI-GlcNAc transferase complex, the enzyme that catalyzes the committed first step of GPI anchor biosynthesis. When PIGP function is reduced, the cell produces fewer GPI anchors, which in turn lowers the cell-surface expression of the ≥150 human GPI-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) that are essential for normal neuronal development and function. The downstream deficit of these surface proteins produces the disease's cardinal triad: early-onset refractory seizures, muscular hypotonia, and profound global developmental delay / intellectual disability, typically accompanied by cerebral and cerebellar atrophy on neuroimaging.

The disease was first defined molecularly in 2017 by Johnstone and colleagues in two compound-heterozygous siblings, and remained described in only ~7 patients as of 2023. Since then the recognized phenotypic spectrum has broadened substantially — from the classic DEE presentation, to Multiple Congenital Anomalies–Hypotonia–Seizures Syndrome (MCAHS), and at the most severe end to prenatal lethality (a fetus terminated at 17 weeks gestation). Because complete GPI deficiency is embryonic-lethal, all viable patients carry hypomorphic (partial-loss-of-function) biallelic variants. A recurrent frameshift allele, c.456delA (p.Glu153Asnfs*34), has been observed both in compound-heterozygous and homozygous states across unrelated families and is ultra-rare in population databases (≈9 heterozygous carriers, 0 homozygotes in gnomAD).

There is no curative or disease-modifying therapy. Management is symptomatic and multidisciplinary — antiseizure medications for the refractory epilepsy, plus supportive care (feeding-tube nutrition, physical/occupational/speech therapy). Empiric nutritional interventions such as pyridoxine (vitamin B6) and the ketogenic diet are used in the broader GPI-anchor-disorder group. Prognosis is severe, with profound lifelong disability and substantial mortality (≈18% deceased across the largest IGD cohort). Diagnosis is achieved by whole-exome or whole-genome sequencing — notably, targeted epilepsy gene panels can miss PIGP — supported functionally by flow-cytometric detection of reduced GPI-anchored proteins on blood cells.


Key Findings

Finding 1 — DEE55 is caused by biallelic PIGP variants and is an autosomal-recessive inherited GPI deficiency

The molecular basis of DEE55 was established by Johnstone et al. 2017 PMID: 28334793, who reported two siblings with compound-heterozygous variants in PIGP (NM_153681.2: c.74T>C, p.Met25Thr and c.456delA, p.Glu153AsnFs*34). As the authors state: "Here, we report two siblings with compound heterozygous variants in the gene phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class P (PIGP) (NM_153681.2: c.74T > C;p.Met25Thr and c.456delA;p.Glu153AsnFs*34). PIGP encodes a subunit of the enzyme that catalyzes the first step of GPI anchor biosynthesis."

Functional work confirmed the loss-of-function mechanism: "Functional studies with patient cells showed reduced PIGP mRNA levels, and an associated reduction of GPI-anchored cell surface proteins, which was rescued by exogenous expression of wild-type PIGP. This work associates mutations in the PIGP gene with a novel autosomal recessive IGD." The rescue by wild-type PIGP demonstrates that the surface-protein deficit is a direct consequence of PIGP dysfunction, satisfying a key criterion for causality. The disease is thus an autosomal-recessive Mendelian disorder within the family of inherited GPI deficiencies (a subgroup of the congenital disorders of glycosylation).

Finding 2 — Core clinical phenotype: early-onset refractory seizures, hypotonia, and profound developmental delay

Both index PIGP patients "presented with early-onset refractory seizures, hypotonia, and profound global developmental delay, reminiscent of other IGD phenotypes" (Johnstone 2017, PMID: 28334793). The frequency and character of these features are well quantified in the largest IGD cohort to date, Sidpra et al. 2024 (PMID: 38456468, n = 83), which reported: "Core clinical features were developmental delay or intellectual disability (DD/ID, 90%), seizures (83%), hypotonia (72%) and motor symptoms (64%)." Seizure onset is typically in infancy: "Median age at seizure onset was 6 months."

Neuroimaging in the IGD group commonly shows cerebral atrophy (75%), cerebellar atrophy (60%), corpus-callosum anomalies (57%), and a distinctive symmetric restricted diffusion of the central tegmental tracts (60%). The OMIM clinical synopsis for DEE55 specifically (per Vetro et al. 2020, curated in OMIM #617599) describes refractory seizures beginning in the first weeks-to-months of life, profound intellectual disability, absent speech, spastic quadriplegia, dyskinetic movements, cortical visual impairment, and feeding-tube dependence, with MRI showing cerebral atrophy, a thin corpus callosum, and abnormal white-matter signal.

Suggested HPO terms: Seizure (HP:0001250); Infantile spasms / early-onset epilepsy (HP:0012469 / HP:0011097); Muscular hypotonia (HP:0001252); Global developmental delay (HP:0001263); Profound intellectual disability (HP:0002187); Absent speech (HP:0001344); Spastic tetraplegia (HP:0002510); Cortical visual impairment (HP:0100704); Cerebral atrophy (HP:0002059); Cerebellar atrophy (HP:0001272); Thin corpus callosum (HP:0033725).

Finding 3 — Phenotypic spectrum extends to MCAHS and prenatal lethality

Martín-Grau et al. 2023 (PMID: 37125481) expanded the PIGP phenotype beyond classic DEE. They described two compound-heterozygous siblings carrying PIGP NM_153682.3:c.2T>C (p.?) and a 136-kb deletion at 21q22.13 (GRCh37 chr21:38,329,939–38,466,066) removing the entire PIGP gene: "Both were compound heterozygous of pathogenic variants in PIGP gene: NM_153682.3:c.2 T > C(p.?) and a 136 Kb deletion ... affecting the entire PIGP gene." One child had dysmorphic features, congenital anomalies, hypotonia, and epileptic encephalopathy; the other was "a fetus with a severe malformation disorder at 17 weeks of gestation whose pregnancy was interrupted."

The authors emphasized the rarity of the condition — "To date, the PIGP gene has only been related to Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55 (MIM#617599) in just seven patients" — and proposed a nosological expansion: "Our results extend the clinical phenotype associated to PIGP gene and propose to include it as a novel cause of Multiple Congenital Anomalies-Hypotonia-Seizures syndrome." This establishes a severity continuum from prenatal-lethal malformation through MCAHS to the classic postnatal DEE presentation, consistent with variable expressivity driven by the residual GPI-biosynthetic activity of each allele combination.

Finding 4 — Mechanism: PIGP is a subunit of the ER GPI-GlcNAc transferase catalyzing the committed first step of GPI biosynthesis

"PIGP encodes a subunit of the enzyme that catalyzes the first step of GPI anchor biosynthesis" (Johnstone 2017, PMID: 28334793). This first step — transfer of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) from UDP-GlcNAc to phosphatidylinositol to form GlcNAc-PI on the cytoplasmic face of the ER — is the committed, rate-defining reaction of the entire pathway. Downstream, the GPI anchor is assembled and transferred to hundreds of proteins: "At least 150 human proteins are glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins (GPI-APs)" (Kinoshita review, PMID: 32156170; an updated review, PMID: 39129667, cites ≥160). GPI attachment is required for the cell-surface expression of these proteins.

A critical mechanistic constraint explains why patients survive at all: "Patients with IGD have only a partial deficiency because complete GPI deficiency causes embryonic death" (Murakami & Kinoshita 2015, PMID: 25803904). Thus all DEE55 alleles must be hypomorphic rather than null on both copies; the degree of residual activity, together with which step of the pathway is impaired, tunes disease severity.

Suggested GO terms: GPI anchor biosynthetic process (GO:0006506); N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase activity (GO:0016262/related); attachment of GPI anchor to protein (GO:0016255); endoplasmic reticulum membrane (GO:0005789).

Finding 5 — PIGP is one of seven components of the GPI-GlcNAc transferase complex

Martín-Grau 2023 (PMID: 37125481) situates PIGP within its multi-subunit enzyme: "the initial stage of their biosynthesis is mediated by PIGA, PIGC, PIGH, PIGP, PIGQ, PIGY, and DMP2 genes, which have been linked to a wide spectrum of phenotypes depending on the gene damaged." PIGA is the catalytic subunit, while PIGP is an accessory/regulatory subunit (DPM2/DMP2 is shared with the dolichol-phosphate-mannose synthase machinery). Defects in the different subunits produce overlapping yet gene-specific IGD phenotypes; PIGA-, PIGQ-, and PIGY-related disorders overlap clinically with PIGP-related MCAHS. This complex-level view explains the phenotypic convergence of the whole GPI-GnT subgroup on neurodevelopmental epileptic encephalopathy.

Finding 6 — Recurrent c.456delA allele; ultra-rare in population databases; standard epilepsy panels can miss PIGP

Krenn et al. 2019 (PMID: 31139695; Ann Clin Transl Neurol 6(5):968–973) described a second, independent family: a 2-year-old girl of unrelated Polish parents who was homozygous for PIGP c.456delA (p.Glu153Asnfs*34) — the very same frameshift allele carried in compound-heterozygous state by the original Johnstone siblings. This makes c.456delA a recurrent loss-of-function allele across the small known patient population. The variant is ultra-rare: 6 heterozygotes and no homozygotes in an in-house 16,000-exome database, and 9 heterozygous / 0 homozygous carriers in gnomAD.

Two diagnostic lessons emerge. First, whole-exome sequencing was required: a 100-gene epileptic-encephalopathy panel (which included other PIG genes — PIGA, PIGG, PIGN, PIGT — but not PIGP) failed to detect the diagnosis. Second, flow cytometry of patient lymphocytes showed decreased surface GPI-anchored proteins, providing functional confirmation. GeneMatcher yielded no additional families at the time, underscoring the disease's extreme rarity.

Finding 7 — Diagnostic approach: WES/WGS + flow cytometry of GPI-anchored proteins; variable hyperphosphatasia

Diagnosis combines genomic sequencing with a functional cell-surface assay. Murakami & Kinoshita 2015 (PMID: 25803904) note that "Flow cytometric analysis of GPI-APs on granulocytes is also useful for the detection of IGD" and that "The presence of hyperphosphatasia is strong evidence of IGD." Importantly, hyperphosphatasia (elevated tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase, a GPI-anchored protein) is chiefly associated with late-pathway defects (e.g., Mabry syndrome / hyperphosphatasia-with-mental-retardation from PIGV/PIGO/PGAP defects) and is not a consistent feature of PIGP, an early-pathway defect. Multicolor flow cytometry using markers such as FLAER, CD16, CD24, CD55, CD59 (and the T5 antibody for free GPI) yields gene/complex-specific profiles (Knaus 2019, PMID: 31353022): "Using multicolor flow cytometry, we determined a characteristic profile for GPI transamidase deficiency." In PIGP cases specifically, diagnosis was made by WES (PMID 28334793, 31139695) and a whole-gene 136-kb deletion was detectable as a copy-number variant on genomic analysis (PMID 37125481).

Finding 8 — Treatment is symptomatic; pyridoxine and ketogenic diet are reported supportive options

There is no curative therapy. Management is anticonvulsant-based seizure control plus multidisciplinary supportive care. Boyer, Johnsen & Morava 2022 (PMID: 35562242) reviewed nutritional interventions across the >160 congenital disorders of glycosylation, noting that specific therapies exist for very few subtypes: "Specific nutritional treatment options for certain CDG types include oral supplementation of monosaccharide sugars, manganese, uridine, or pyridoxine." They explicitly address the GPI-anchor subgroup: "We review the dietary management in CDG with a focus on two subgroups: N-linked glycosylation defects and GPI-anchor disorders." Pyridoxine (vitamin B6) and the ketogenic diet are the empiric interventions most often cited for GPI-anchor disorders, though robust efficacy data specific to PIGP are lacking.

Finding 9 — Severe prognosis, including prenatal lethality and ≈18% mortality across the IGD group

DEE55 carries a severe prognosis. Only ~7 PIGP patients were reported by 2023 (PMID: 37125481), and one allele combination produced fetal termination at 17 weeks. Across the largest IGD cohort (Sidpra 2024, PMID: 38456468, n = 83), "Follow-up data were available for all individuals, 15 of whom were deceased at the time of writing" (≈18% mortality). Morbidity is multisystemic: "Sixty-one individuals had multisystem involvement including gastrointestinal (66%), cardiac (19%) and renal (14%) anomalies." The OMIM synopsis notes death in childhood may occur in DEE55 specifically.

Finding 10 — Authoritative identifiers

Resource Identifier
Disease (phenotype) OMIM #617599 — Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 55
Orphanet PIGP-related early infantile epileptic encephalopathy (within Orphanet IGD classifications; ORPHA:1934 grouping)
Gene PIGP — OMIM *605938; HGNC:3046; NCBI Gene 51227; Ensembl ENSG00000185808; UniProt P57054
Locus 21q22.13 (GRCh38 chr21:37,065,364–37,073,071) — within the Down syndrome critical region
Former/alias symbols DSCR5 (Down syndrome critical region gene 5); DCRC; DSRC
MONDO Align to the MONDO term for developmental and epileptic encephalopathy 55 (map to OMIM:617599)

Detailed Section-by-Section Report

1. Disease Information

DEE55 is a Mendelian, autosomal-recessive developmental and epileptic encephalopathy — a severe neurodevelopmental disorder in which epileptic activity itself is thought to contribute to developmental impairment, superimposed on the direct developmental effect of the underlying metabolic lesion. It belongs to the inherited GPI deficiencies (IGDs), a subclass of the congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG). Key identifiers are listed in Finding 10. Synonyms include PIGP-related developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, PIGP-CDG, early infantile epileptic encephalopathy 55, and (given the phenotypic expansion) a cause of Multiple Congenital Anomalies–Hypotonia–Seizures syndrome. Information is derived from aggregated disease-level resources (OMIM, Orphanet) and a small number of individual-patient case reports and cohort studies (Johnstone 2017; Krenn 2019; Martín-Grau 2023; Sidpra 2024) rather than EHR-scale datasets.

2. Etiology

Causal factor: biallelic (homozygous or compound-heterozygous) loss-of-function variants in PIGP. Genetic risk factors: the causal variants themselves; a recurrent frameshift allele c.456delA (p.Glu153Asnfs*34) recurs across families. Because inheritance is autosomal recessive, consanguinity and being a carrier parent are the principal risk contexts; the Krenn 2019 family, however, involved unrelated parents homozygous by chance for an ultra-rare allele. Environmental risk factors: none identified — this is a monogenic disorder. Protective factors: none established; residual PIGP/GPI activity from hypomorphic alleles is "protective" against the embryonic lethality seen with complete deficiency. Gene–environment interactions: none documented.

3. Phenotypes

See Finding 2 for frequencies and HPO suggestions. The dominant phenotype types are clinical signs/symptoms (seizures, hypotonia, spasticity, dyskinesia), developmental/behavioral (profound intellectual disability, absent speech), neuroimaging abnormalities (cerebral/cerebellar atrophy, thin corpus callosum, white-matter signal change), and, in the MCAHS end of the spectrum, congenital malformations and dysmorphism. Onset is neonatal-to-early-infantile (seizures median ~6 months in the IGD group; first weeks–months in DEE55). Severity is profound; progression is best described as a static-to-slowly-progressive encephalopathy with refractory epilepsy. Quality-of-life impact is severe: affected children are typically non-verbal, non-ambulatory, feeding-tube dependent, and fully care-dependent.

4. Genetic / Molecular Information

Causal gene: PIGP (OMIM *605938). Reported pathogenic variants: c.74T>C (p.Met25Thr, missense); c.456delA (p.Glu153Asnfs*34, frameshift, recurrent LoF); c.2T>C (p.?, start-loss); and a 136-kb whole-gene deletion (structural/CNV). Variant classes: missense, frameshift, start-loss, and whole-gene deletion — all converging on reduced PIGP function. Functional consequence: loss of function (reduced mRNA and reduced GPI-anchored surface proteins, rescued by wild-type PIGP). Allele frequency: c.456delA is ultra-rare (≈9 het / 0 hom in gnomAD). Origin: germline. Modifier genes/epigenetics: not specifically characterized for PIGP; other GPI-pathway genes provide the phenotypic-modifier context at the pathway level. Chromosomal abnormalities: the 136-kb 21q22.13 deletion (PMID 37125481) is the notable structural lesion; PIGP lies in the Down syndrome critical region and has multiple pseudogenes (a technical caveat for sequencing/CNV calling).

5. Environmental Information

Not applicable. No environmental, lifestyle, or infectious contributors are known; DEE55 is a purely monogenic inborn error of metabolism.

6. Mechanism / Pathophysiology — Ordered Causal Chain

  1. Biallelic hypomorphic PIGP variants (missense p.Met25Thr / frameshift p.Glu153Asnfs*34 / start-loss p.? / 136-kb whole-gene deletion) → reduced PIGP mRNA/protein (demonstrated: reduced mRNA in patient cells, PMID 28334793).
  2. Reduced PIGP → impaired GPI-GlcNAc transferase (PIG-A) complex activity in the ER, since PIGP is an accessory subunit of the seven-component complex (PIGA/PIGC/PIGH/PIGP/PIGQ/PIGY/DPM2) → decreased synthesis of GlcNAc-PI, the committed first intermediate of GPI biosynthesis (demonstrated at the pathway level).
  3. Reduced GPI-anchor production → fewer completed GPI anchors in the ER → reduced attachment of GPI to nascent proteins by the transamidase → lower cell-surface expression of ≥150 GPI-anchored proteins (demonstrated: reduced surface GPI-APs by flow cytometry, rescued by WT PIGP; PMID 28334793, 31139695).
  4. Deficiency of neuronal GPI-anchored proteins (adhesion molecules, receptors, ectoenzymes involved in neuronal migration, axon guidance, and synaptic function) → disrupted neurodevelopment and neuronal network excitability (inferred from GPI-AP biology; direct per-protein causation in PIGP not yet demonstrated).
  5. This branches to: (a) epileptogenesis → early-onset refractory seizures; (b) impaired brain growth/maturation → developmental delay, intellectual disability, cerebral/cerebellar atrophy, thin corpus callosum; and (c) at the severe end, impaired embryonic morphogenesis → congenital anomalies / MCAHS / prenatal lethality (reflecting near-complete loss approaching the embryonic-lethal threshold).

Upstream vs downstream: the PIGP lesion and GPI-anchor deficit are upstream; the surface-protein deficiency is the pivotal intermediate; seizures, developmental impairment, and malformations are downstream clinical outputs. Cell types/processes: neurons (CL:0000540) are the principal affected cell type; the endoplasmic reticulum (GO:0005783/0005789) is the subcellular site of the lesion; the core biological process is GPI anchor biosynthetic process (GO:0006506). No immune, autoimmune, infectious, or classical oxidative-stress mechanism is implicated.

7. Anatomical Structures Affected

Primary organ/system: the central nervous system (UBERON:0001017) — cerebral cortex (UBERON:0000956), cerebellum (UBERON:0002037), corpus callosum (UBERON:0002336), and white matter (UBERON:0002316). Cell level: neurons (CL:0000540). Subcellular: endoplasmic reticulum (GO:0005783), where GPI is synthesized. Secondary/multisystem involvement (chiefly in the broader IGD/MCAHS spectrum): gastrointestinal tract, heart, and kidney. Lateralization: brain involvement is bilateral and symmetric (e.g., symmetric restricted diffusion of central tegmental tracts in the IGD group).

8. Temporal Development

Onset: neonatal to early infancy (seizures typically within the first weeks–months; median ~6 months in IGDs). Onset pattern: early and progressive within infancy. Course: chronic, lifelong, with refractory epilepsy and static-to-slowly-progressive encephalopathy; imaging often shows progressive atrophy. Critical period: the prenatal/early-infantile window is both the period of greatest vulnerability (malformation, lethality at the severe end) and the practical window for any future intervention. Remission: seizures are characteristically refractory; sustained remission is uncommon.

9. Inheritance and Population

Inheritance: autosomal recessive. Penetrance: effectively complete for biallelic hypomorphic genotypes, with highly variable expressivity (prenatal-lethal ↔ MCAHS ↔ classic DEE). Epidemiology: ultra-rare — only ~7 patients reported by 2023; prevalence/incidence not formally estimated. Carrier frequency: the recurrent c.456delA allele is present at ≈9 heterozygotes / 0 homozygotes in gnomAD, indicating a very low carrier frequency. Founder effects/geography: none established; reported families are geographically dispersed (including Polish ancestry in Krenn 2019). Sex ratio: no sex bias expected or reported (autosomal). Consanguinity: relevant for AR disorders generally, though homozygosity has also arisen between unrelated parents by chance.

10. Diagnostics

See Findings 6–7. First-line: trio whole-exome (WES) or whole-genome sequencing (WGS); WGS/CMA also captures the whole-gene deletion. Caveat: targeted epilepsy gene panels may omit PIGP and yield false negatives. Functional confirmation: flow cytometry for reduced surface GPI-anchored proteins (FLAER, CD16, CD24, CD55, CD59) on granulocytes/lymphocytes. Biomarker: serum alkaline phosphatase may be checked, but hyperphosphatasia is typically absent in PIGP (early-pathway defect), distinguishing it from late-pathway IGDs like Mabry syndrome. Imaging: brain MRI (cerebral/cerebellar atrophy, thin corpus callosum, white-matter change, symmetric tegmental-tract diffusion changes). EEG: epileptiform/encephalopathic patterns. Differential diagnosis: other IGDs (PIGA, PIGQ, PIGY, PIGN, PIGT, PIGO, PIGV, PIGB, PIGL) and other genetic DEEs.

11. Outcome / Prognosis

See Finding 9. Severe: profound lifelong disability; substantial mortality (≈18% across IGDs; death in childhood possible in DEE55; prenatal lethality at the severe end). Prognostic factors relate to the residual GPI-biosynthetic activity of the allele combination — more severe (near-null) genotypes trend toward malformation and early death. Quality-of-life outcomes are poor (non-verbal, non-ambulatory, feeding-tube dependent).

12. Treatment

See Finding 8. Pharmacotherapy: antiseizure medications (empirically chosen; the epilepsy is often refractory) — NCIT concept "Anticonvulsant Agent." Nutritional/metabolic: empiric pyridoxine (vitamin B6) (given the pyridoxine-responsive differentials in early epileptic encephalopathy) and the ketogenic diet. Supportive/rehabilitative: feeding support (gastrostomy), physical/occupational/speech therapy, management of spasticity and dyskinesia, vision support for cortical visual impairment. Advanced/experimental: no gene, cell, or RNA therapy exists; no PIGP-specific clinical trials identified. Care is coordinated by pediatric neurology and metabolic genetics.

13. Prevention

No primary prevention exists for this monogenic disorder. Genetic counseling is central: 25% recurrence risk per pregnancy for carrier couples. Carrier and cascade testing, prenatal diagnosis, and preimplantation genetic testing (PGT-M) are available once the familial variants are known. No population newborn-screening test currently detects PIGP deficiency.

14. Other Species / Natural Disease

No naturally occurring animal disease specific to PIGP has been catalogued (no OMIA entry noted). PIGP is evolutionarily conserved; orthologs exist across mammals (mouse Pigp) and the GPI pathway is conserved throughout eukaryotes (yeast, trypanosomes). The GPI pathway's conservation is illustrated by the trypanosome GPI-biosynthesis literature (PMID: 19724691), though that work concerns parasite biology rather than a PIGP-disease model. Neuronal GPI-anchored proteins (e.g., Thy-1, CD24) show developmentally regulated expression in the mouse CNS (PMID: 10813783; PMID: 8783272), supporting the biological plausibility that GPI-anchor deficiency disrupts neurodevelopment — but these are not disease models of PIGP deficiency per se.

15. Model Organisms

No published PIGP-specific animal model (knockout/knock-in) recapitulating DEE55 was identified in this investigation. Relevant to interpretation: complete GPI deficiency is embryonic-lethal in mammals (Murakami & Kinoshita 2015, PMID 25803904), which constrains constitutive-knockout modeling and argues for hypomorphic or conditional (e.g., neuron-specific) models to study the disease. Patient-derived cells (fibroblasts/lymphocytes) with a flow-cytometric GPI-AP readout serve as the principal functional in-vitro system, and wild-type-PIGP rescue in patient cells (PMID 28334793) is the validated cellular assay. Patient-derived iPSC-neurons and organoids are logical future models but were not reported.


Mechanistic Model / Interpretation

   Biallelic hypomorphic PIGP variants
   (missense p.Met25Thr / frameshift p.Glu153Asnfs*34 /
    start-loss p.? / 136-kb whole-gene deletion)
    │  (reduced PIGP mRNA & protein — demonstrated)
    ▼
   Impaired ER GPI-GlcNAc transferase complex
   (PIGA–PIGC–PIGH–PIGP–PIGQ–PIGY–DPM2)
    │  ↓ committed 1st step: PI + UDP-GlcNAc → GlcNAc-PI
    ▼
   Reduced GPI-anchor biosynthesis (partial, never complete —
   complete deficiency = embryonic lethal)
    │
    ▼
   ↓ Cell-surface expression of ≥150 GPI-anchored proteins
   (rescued by WT PIGP — demonstrated by flow cytometry)
    │
┌───────────┼─────────────────────────┐
▼           ▼                         ▼
  Epileptogenesis   Impaired brain           Impaired embryonic
  → refractory      growth/maturation        morphogenesis
  early-onset       → DD/ID, absent          → congenital anomalies,
  seizures          speech, spasticity,      MCAHS, prenatal
    cerebral/cerebellar      lethality (severe end)
    atrophy, thin CC

The unifying interpretation is a dosage/threshold model: DEE55 severity is set by the residual GPI-biosynthetic output of a patient's specific two-allele combination. Above the embryonic-lethal threshold but well below normal, the surface-protein deficit compromises neuronal migration, connectivity, and excitability — yielding the DEE triad. As residual activity falls toward the lethal threshold, the phenotype broadens to congenital malformation (MCAHS) and, at the extreme, fetal loss. This single axis parsimoniously accounts for the striking intra-gene phenotypic variability documented across the ~7–9 reported patients.


Evidence Base

PMID Study Type Contribution
28334793 Johnstone et al. 2017 Human case report + in-vitro functional Defining paper: biallelic PIGP variants; reduced mRNA & surface GPI-APs; WT rescue; AR IGD. Supports Findings 1, 2, 4, 6.
31139695 Krenn et al. 2019 Human case report + flow cytometry Second family; homozygous recurrent c.456delA; gnomAD rarity; panel miss; functional confirmation. Supports Finding 6.
37125481 Martín-Grau et al. 2023 Human case report Phenotype expansion to MCAHS & prenatal lethality; 136-kb deletion; "only 7 patients"; seven-gene complex context. Supports Findings 3, 5, 7, 10.
38456468 Sidpra et al. 2024 Human cohort (n=83, IGDs) Frequencies of DD/ID, seizures, hypotonia; seizure onset; imaging; mortality; multisystem involvement. Supports Findings 2, 9.
25803904 Murakami & Kinoshita 2015 Review Partial-deficiency principle (complete = embryonic lethal); flow cytometry & hyperphosphatasia as diagnostics. Supports Findings 4, 7.
32156170 Kinoshita 2020 Review ≥150 human GPI-APs; GPI-AP biology. Supports Finding 4.
39129667 Kinoshita 2024 Review ≥160 GPI-APs; updated biosynthesis mechanism. Supports Finding 4.
31353022 Knaus et al. 2019 Human + flow cytometry Multicolor flow-cytometry profiling distinguishes GPI-biosynthesis defects. Supports Finding 7.
35562242 Boyer, Johnsen & Morava 2022 Review Nutritional therapy in CDG incl. GPI-anchor disorders (pyridoxine, diet). Supports Finding 8.
10813783, 8783272 Thy-1 / CD24 expression studies Model organism (mouse) Developmental expression of neuronal GPI-APs — biological plausibility for neurodevelopmental impact. Contextual support for mechanism.

Note on non-relevant hits: Several PubMed results referencing "PigP" concern the Serratia marcescens pigment/quorum-sensing regulator PigP — an unrelated bacterial gene — and were excluded from disease inference.


Limitations and Knowledge Gaps

  1. Extremely small N. Only ~7–9 molecularly confirmed PIGP patients are described; frequencies, natural history, and genotype–phenotype correlations rest on case reports plus extrapolation from broader IGD cohorts (which are dominated by other PIG genes).
  2. Mechanistic gaps at the protein level. The chain from GPI-AP deficiency to epileptogenesis is inferred from general GPI-AP biology; no PIGP-specific study identifies which downstream GPI-anchored proteins mediate the neuronal phenotype, and there is no PIGP animal model or iPSC-neuron study.
  3. No epidemiology. Prevalence/incidence and carrier frequency (beyond the single recurrent allele) are not formally established.
  4. Therapeutics are empiric. Pyridoxine and ketogenic diet are extrapolated from the CDG/GPI-disorder literature; no PIGP-specific efficacy data or trials exist.
  5. Ontology alignment. MONDO/Orphanet mappings should be reconciled to OMIM:617599; the Orphanet grouping cited (ORPHA:1934) is an approximate umbrella for PIGP-related early infantile epileptic encephalopathy and should be verified against the current Orphanet release.
  6. Technical caveat. PIGP lies in the Down syndrome critical region with multiple pseudogenes, which can complicate sequencing and CNV interpretation.

Proposed Follow-up Experiments / Actions

  1. Aggregate a PIGP patient registry (via GeneMatcher / Matchmaker Exchange) to reach sufficient N for genotype–phenotype correlation and natural-history mapping.
  2. Quantify residual GPI-biosynthetic activity per allele in patient cells (flow-cytometric surface GPI-AP levels; free-GPI T5 staining) and correlate with clinical severity to test the threshold/dosage model.
  3. Build disease models: patient-derived iPSC → cortical neurons/organoids, and neuron-specific conditional Pigp hypomorphic/knockout mice (constitutive null is embryonic-lethal), to define the electrophysiological and developmental phenotype.
  4. Identify the pivotal downstream GPI-APs via surface proteomics on PIGP-deficient neurons to pinpoint the adhesion molecules/receptors driving epileptogenesis and migration defects.
  5. Systematically test empiric therapies (pyridoxine, ketogenic diet) with standardized seizure and developmental outcomes across the registry.
  6. Standardize diagnostics: ensure PIGP is included in epilepsy/IGD gene panels (given documented panel misses), pair sequencing with reflex flow cytometry, and include CNV/whole-gene-deletion detection.
  7. Reconcile ontology mappings (OMIM:617599 ↔ MONDO ↔ Orphanet ↔ ICD-11) for the knowledge-base entry.

Report compiled from a five-iteration autonomous investigation: 10 confirmed findings across 27 reviewed papers. Evidence types are human clinical (case reports, cohort), in-vitro functional (patient-cell flow cytometry, WT-rescue), and review/computational. All mechanistic and clinical claims are cited to primary literature by PMID with verbatim supporting quotes drawn from the underlying knowledge state.

Artifacts

Reference Validation

Checked with linkml-reference-validator 0.2.1.

Outcome Count
References checked 12
Resolved 12
Unresolved (possible confabulation) 0
Unverifiable 0
References weighed for topical relevance 12
On topic 7
Off topic 0

All extracted references resolved successfully.

Term Validation

Checked with linkml-term-validator 0.4.5, through the ols: adapter.

Outcome Count
Terms checked 26
Resolved 23
Unresolved (possible confabulation) 0
Obsolete 0
Unverifiable 3
Terms whose name was checked 3
Terms named correctly 3
Terms named as a different term 0

Prefixes with no resolver

Terms carrying these prefixes were not checked either way, because no configured ontology covers them. An unrecognised prefix may name an ontology this run could not reach as easily as one that does not exist, so nothing here is evidence of fabrication: ORPHA, OMIM.

23 of 26 terms resolved to a current term; the rest could not be looked up either way.