ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT07822776ANSWERUpdated Sep 16, 2026

Efgartigimod in Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis.

A Phase 2 interventional study of Efgartigimod Alfa in Encephalitis Autoimmune, sponsored by Beijing Tongren Hospital. Recruiting at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-16.

Sponsored by Beijing Tongren Hospital · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Jun 2026; still recruiting 4 months later.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
20
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study is a multicenter, open-label, single-arm exploratory trial designed to enroll 20 eligible patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis. It aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of efgartigimod in the acute phase of anti-NMDAR encephalitis. The study drug is efgartigimod, α injection administered intravenously at a dose of 10 mg/kg (maximum dose 1200 mg). Each infusion lasts approximately 1 hour, administered weekly for a total of 4 doses. The primary endpoint is the change in modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at week 4 (day 28) post-treatment compared to baseline.

02

Conditions studied

  • Encephalitis Autoimmune

Keywords

  • Anti-NMDAR encephalitis
  • Treatment
  • Antibody clearance
  • FcRn
  • Efgartigimod
03

In context

Autoimmune Diseases of the Nervous System

123 studies on the registry are indexed under Autoimmune Diseases of the Nervous System; 59 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 40 across 63 interventional studies indexed under Autoimmune Diseases of the Nervous System.

Browse Autoimmune Diseases of the Nervous System studies →

Lead sponsor

Beijing Tongren Hospital is the lead sponsor of 164 studies on the registry; 54 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Age ≥18 years old, male or female;
  2. Diagnosed as anti-NMDAR encephalitis, diagnostic criteria as follows:

    1. At least one of the following six major symptoms:

      • Abnormal (mental) behavior or cognitive dysfunction
      • Speech dysfunction (verbal urgency, hypospeech, mutism)
      • Seizures
      • Movement disorders, dyskinesias, or postural rigidity/abnormalities
      • Decreased level of consciousness
      • Autonomic dysfunction or central hypoventilation in the presence of one or more of the six major symptoms;
    2. Positive anti-NMDAR IgG antibody: Diagnosis should be based on CSF antibody positivity using CBA. If only serum samples are available for testing, a positive CBA result must be supplemented with TBA on cultured neurons for definitive confirmation. Serum positivity at low titers (1:10) is not diagnostically significant.

    c.Reasonable exclusion of other etiologies.

  3. Patients with newly diagnosed or anti-NMDAR encephalitis who scored ≥2 on the mRS (5 patients each with mRS scores of 2-5);

    • Newly diagnosed patients must not have received any prior therapy.
    • For relapsed patients:

      1. For subjects receiving rituximab, treatment must have commenced at least 2 months prior to screening, with the final dose administered no less than 4 weeks before randomization, and no improvement in mRS score within the 4 weeks preceding randomization.
      2. For subjects receiving other immunosuppressive agents (i.e., mycophenolate mofetil, cyclophosphamide, or azathioprine), treatment must have been ongoing for at least 2 months prior to screening, the dose must have been stable for at least 4 weeks prior to screening, and there must have been no improvement in the mRS score within 4 weeks prior to randomization.
      3. For subjects receiving oral , those receiving a stable daily dose of ≥20 mg of prednisolone (or its equivalent) with no increase in steroid dosage within 4 weeks prior to screening, and no improvement in mRS score within 4 weeks prior to randomization.
      4. For subjects receiving repeated courses (pulse therapy) of acute therapy, treatment must be completed >2 weeks prior to randomization (baseline visit).
  4. Study subjects had received at least 3 days of glucocorticoid therapy at a dose of 500-1000 mg MP daily within 2 weeks prior to enrollment (baseline visit). They had transitioned to oral corticosteroid therapy and stable doses of non-steroidal immunosuppressive agents (NISIT) (limited to relapsed patients), and had not received IVIG or plasma exchange.
  5. For women of should use effective during treatment and for at least 3 months after the last dose of Efgartigimod.
  6. Ability to sign an form, which includes agreeing to comply with the requirements and restrictions outlined in the informed consent form and this protocol.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Subjects should be excluded from the study if they meet any of the following criteria:

  1. Presence of any untreated teratoma or thymoma at baseline visit. Detection of teratoma or thymoma prior to or during the screening period is permitted if the disease is considered cured following treatment (typically surgical resection) within 1 week before baseline.
  2. Known allergy to any component of the study drug or any other anti-FcRn drug.
  3. Received IVIG or PE therapy within 2 weeks prior to screening.
  4. Research participants with active infections (including unresolved or inadequately treated infections) as assessed by the investigator.
  5. requiring chemotherapy.
  6. Total IgG level ≤6 g/L in study subjects during screening visits.
  7. Pregnancy
  8. Patients with severe underlying conditions such as cardiac insufficiency, arrhythmia, or coagulation disorders.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(9)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Relapsed and refractory

Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Line of therapy

A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.

“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
20 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Efgartigimod treatment group

    Efgartigimod will be intravenously injected at a dose of 10mg/kg per week, lasting for 4 weeks.

    Drug: Efgartigimod Alfa

Interventions

  • Efgartigimod will be intravenously injected at a dose of 10mg/kg per week, lasting for 4 weeks.

    Also known as: No other Intervention Names

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. the change of modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score

    the change in modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at week 4 (day 28) post-treatment compared to baseline. modified Rankin Scale (mRS): from 0 to 6 The higher the patient's mRS score, the more severe the neurological deficit.

    Time frame: from baseline to week 4

Secondary outcomes

  1. the change of Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE) score from baseline to week 12

    Changes from baseline in Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE) at 12 weeks post-treatment. Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE) : from 0 to 27. The higher the patient's CASE score, the more severe the neurological deficit.

    Time frame: from baseline to week 12

  2. the change of Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) score

    Changes from baseline in Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) at 12 weeks post-treatment. Subscale scores: Severity Index (SI) (0-7) and Global Improvement Index (GI) (0-7). Efficacy Index (EI) (0-4.00). In pharmacological studies, only drug formulations with an Efficacy Index of 1.0 or higher are considered valuable.

    Time frame: from baseline to week 12

  3. the change of Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score

    Changes from baseline in Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) at 12 weeks post-treatment. Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) : from 3 to 15. The lower the patient's mRS score, the more severe the Impaired consciousness.

    Time frame: from baseline to week 12

  4. the change of Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis One-Year Functional Status Score (NEOS) score

    Changes from baseline in Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis One-Year Functional Status Score (NEOS) at 12 weeks post-treatment. Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis One-Year Functional Status Score (NEOS): from 0 to 5. The higher the NEOS score, the poorer the patient's 1-year prognosis.

    Time frame: from baseline to week 12

  5. Time of clinical improvement

    Time to baseline improvement of ≥1 point in mRS score without rescue therapy

    Time frame: from baseline to week 4

  6. Changes in anti-NMDAR antibody levels at 12 weeks post-treatment

    detection of changes in anti-NMDAR antibody levels at 12 weeks post-treatment

    Time frame: from baseline to week 12

  7. Changes in total IgG levels at 12 weeks post-treatment

    detection of changes in total IgG levels at 12 weeks post-treatment

    Time frame: from baseline to week 12

  8. the change of Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE) score

    Changes from baseline in Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE) at 12 weeks post-treatment. Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE) : from 0 to 27. The higher the patient's CASE score, the more severe the neurological deficit.

    Time frame: from baseline to week 12

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 16, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07822776
Collaborators
Henan Provincial People's Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Xijing Hospital, Beijing Huaxin Hospital
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 16, 2026
Start date
Jun 25, 2026
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Mar 30, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 16, 2026

Study contacts

Jiawei Wang
Contact
wangjwcq@163.com
010-58266091
Yujing Peng
Contact
pengyujing1206@163.com
010-58266091

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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