Marseille 2007
| Abstract #223 - The use of racial categories in scientific studies of human host genetics and HIV. | ||||
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Session: 26.110: Posters B (Poster) on Tuesday in Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Marsha Rosengarten - Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: To examine scientific use of the categories of race and ethnicity for deciphering the significance of human host genetics in HIV infection, progression, treatment and prevention. | ||||
| Method / Issue: The study undertook a limited systematic review of published findings from clinical trials assessing HIV in relation to human host genetics and using the research variables of race or (its sometimes stand-in) ethnicity. Medline data base was searched using the terms HIV and Caucasian, HIV and African, HIV and African American, HIV and Chinese, HIV and Indian, HIV and genetics. This literature was reviewed to select only published clinical studies that made use of the categories of race and/or ethnicity to investigate human host genetic factors in HIV infectivity, progression, treatment and/or prevention. The literature was examined to identify: (i) method of recruiting trial participants on the basis of their racial or ethnic identity; (ii) type of usage of the classifier race or ethnicity in relation to other research variables; (iii) if the classifier was reported as affective, its significance in relation to human host genetic differences. | ||||
| Results / Comments: The study found: (i)Racial and ethnic categories are used by scientific researchers to identify differences in populations. These differences are hypothesised as possibly significant for the development of vaccine candidates and also for adjustment of normative diagnostic measures which have, historically, been developed using participants in developed nations and often without attention to the question of genetic difference. (ii)The means by which research participants are recruited into clinical trials according to their race or ethnicity is not recorded with the findings of such studies. (iii)Clinical trials using race or ethnic classifiers appear to confirm that genetic differences in HIV human hosts affect HIV progression, treatment and probable prevention in the form of future vaccine candidates. (iv)Clinical trials using race or ethnic classifiers appear to confirm the latter as material, that is, as genetically identifiable. | ||||
| Discussion: Findings from clinical trials indicate that race and ethnic classifiers are valid variables for identifying genetic differences in diagnostic measures and the development of antiretroviral drugs and vaccine candidates. Yet it is also apparent from the literature that researchers do not see a need to explain how individuals are recruited into clinical trials according to these categories, despite longstanding debate on the status of the categories. The absence of clarification or even query of the categories as reliable research variables may be significant for long term scientific assessment and application of the findings. Moreover, again on the basis of longstanding debate, there may be significant social and political implications arising from the research. The intersecting concepts of race as ideological and, opposed to this, as material underscore confusion and instability in the biological/social or nature/culture distinction. They point to the need for further inquiry into how race and ethnicity are understood as research variables. | ||||
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