GRN

Chr 17

granulin precursor

Also known as: CLN11, FTD2, GEP, GP88, PCDGF, PEPI, PGRN

Progranulin is a secreted glycoprotein that regulates cell growth and is important in development, wound healing, and inflammatory responses. Mutations cause frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia through autosomal dominant inheritance, typically via haploinsufficiency from loss-of-function variants, while biallelic mutations cause autosomal recessive neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type 11. The dominant conditions result from reduced progranulin levels leading to neurodegeneration, while the recessive form involves more severe loss of protein function.

GeneReviewsResearchSummary from RefSeq, OMIM, UniProt
LOFmechanismLOEUF 0.48
Clinical SummaryGRN
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Gene-Disease Validity (ClinGen)
neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis · ARDefinitive

Definitive — sufficient evidence for diagnostic panels

2 total gene-disease associations curated

Population Constraint (gnomAD)
Constrained for loss-of-function variants (OE-LoF 0.27) despite low pLI — interpret in context.
📋
ClinVar Variants
69 unique Pathogenic / Likely Pathogenic· 230 VUS of 500 total submissions
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Clinical Trials
9 active or recruiting trials — potential therapeutic options may be available
📖
GeneReview available — GRN
Authoritative clinical overview · Recommended first read
Open GeneReview ↗
Some data sources returned errors (1)

omim: Error: OMIM fetch failed: 429

Population Genetics & Constraint

gnomAD v4 — loss-of-function & missense intolerance

Moderate LoF intolerance
LoF Constraint
0.48LOEUF
pLI 0.070
Z-score 3.71
OE 0.27 (0.160.48)
Moderately constrained

More LoF-intolerant than ~75% of genes

Missense Constraint
0.28Z-score
OE missense 0.96 (0.881.05)
341 obs / 355.6 exp
Tolerant

Mild missense constraint

Observed / Expected Ratios
LoF OE0.27 (0.160.48)
00.351.4
Missense OE0.96 (0.881.05)
00.61.4
Synonymous OE1.13
01.21.6
LoF obs/exp: 8 / 29.9Missense obs/exp: 341 / 355.6Syn Z: -1.25
Curated Mechanism (G2P)Gene2Phenotype (DDG2P) ↗
strongGRN-related ceroid lipofuscinosis, neuronalLOFAR

Predictions shown for reference only — model trained on dominant genes, not applicable to AR conditions.

DN
0.6162th %ile
GOF
0.5072th %ile
LOF
0.3455th %ile

The Badonyi & Marsh prediction model was trained exclusively on dominant disease genes. Predictions are not reliable for genes with autosomal recessive inheritance and are shown at reduced opacity for reference only.

Literature Evidence

LOFThe patient presented clinically with typical FTD without additional symptoms, consistent with haploinsufficiency of PGRN being the only gene contributing to the disease phenotype.PMID:18157829

Predictions from Badonyi M, Marsh JA. PLoS ONE. 2024;19(8):e0307312. Mechanism ranking also informed by gnomAD constraint, ClinVar, and ClinGen data.

ClinVar Variant Classifications

500 submitted variants in ClinVar

Classification Summary

Pathogenic51
Likely Pathogenic18
VUS230
Likely Benign154
Benign8
Conflicting20
51
Pathogenic
18
Likely Pathogenic
230
VUS
154
Likely Benign
8
Benign
20
Conflicting

Curated Variants Distribution

Classified variants from ClinVar · 5 ACMG categories

ClassificationLoFMissense + InframeNon-codingSynonymousTotal
Pathogenic
43
1
7
0
51
Likely Pathogenic
15
1
2
0
18
VUS
3
205
16
6
230
Likely Benign
0
3
60
91
154
Benign
0
0
8
0
8
Conflicting
20
Total612109397481

LoF = frameshift, stop gained/lost, canonical splice · Counts from ClinVar esearch · Updated hourly

View in ClinVar →

Protein Context — Lollipop Plot

GRN · protein map & ClinVar variants

Showing all ClinVar variants across the protein. Search a specific variant to highlight its position.

3D Protein StructureAlphaFold

Clinical Trials

Active and recruiting trials from ClinicalTrials.gov

Frontotemporal Dementia

Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial of LY3884963 in Patients With Frontotemporal Dementia With Progranulin Mutations (FTD-GRN)

ACTIVE NOT RECRUITING
NCT04408625Phase PHASE1, PHASE2Prevail TherapeuticsStarted 2020-11-09
LY3884963MethylprednisoloneOptional Sirolimus
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Development of Targeted RNA-Seq for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Diagnosis

RECRUITING
NCT06083584Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de NīmesStarted 2023-11-22
RNA sequencing
Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD)Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD)

ARTFL LEFFTDS Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (ALLFTD)

RECRUITING
NCT04363684Mayo ClinicStarted 2020-03-01
Neuronal Ceroid LipofuscinosisBatten DiseaseCLN1 Disease

Natural History and Longitudinal Clinical Assessments in NCL / Batten Disease, the International DEM-CHILD Database

RECRUITING
NCT04613089Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-EppendorfStarted 2020-04-08
Natural History
Frontotemporal DementiaFTDFTD-GRN

A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Effect of AVB-101, a Gene Therapy Product, in Subjects With a Genetic Sub-type of Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD-GRN)

RECRUITING
NCT06064890Phase PHASE1, PHASE2AviadoBio LtdStarted 2023-08-30
Intrathalamic AAV.PGRN administrationIntrathalamic AVB-101
Frontotemporal Lobar DegenerationAlzheimer DiseaseCognitively Normal

PET Imaging Tau Accumulation in FTLD and Atypical Alzheimer's Using [18F]-PI-2620

RECRUITING
NCT05456503Phase PHASE3University of PennsylvaniaStarted 2022-09-19
[18F]-PI-2620
Frontotemporal DementiaFTDFTD-GRN

A Study of PBFT02 in Participants With FTD and Mutations in the Granulin Precursor (GRN) or C9ORF72 Genes

RECRUITING
NCT04747431Phase PHASE1, PHASE2Passage Bio, Inc.Started 2021-09-14
PBFT02
Spinal StenosisLigamentum Flavum Hypertrophy

Cytokines, Neuroplasticity Modulators, and Biomarkers in Spinal Canal Stenosis and Endoscopic Decompression

NOT YET RECRUITING
NCT07232836Phase NAPoznan University of Physical EducationStarted 2025-11-17
Endoscopic Spinal Canal Decompression
Neurodegenerative DiseaseBehavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD)Primary Progressive Aphasia(PPA)

Tracking and Predicting How Brain Damage Spreads in Neurodegenerative Diseases

ENROLLING BY INVITATION
NCT07567664Phase NAIRCCS San RaffaeleStarted 2017-06-01
3 Tesla MRI without contrast mediumBlood sample for genetic analysisCerebrospinal fluid sampling (CSF)
Clinical Literature
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Full-Text Mentions
NLP-detected gene mentions in article bodies · via PubTator3
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Key Publications
Landmark & review papers · by relevance
PubMed
Top 5 results · since 2015Search PubMed ↗