Diversity related Neuro-AIDS and Mental Health Research

描述(申请人提供)：神经系统的艾滋病毒感染经常导致神经精神并发症，是艾滋病毒感染者群体残疾的主要原因。到目前为止，这种疾病还没有有效的治疗方法，而且这种感染对种族和族裔少数群体的影响不成比例，使情况变得更加复杂。如果我们想要对这种疾病产生重大影响，就需要克服几个障碍。我们不仅需要了解影响这种感染传播的社会和文化多样性以及我们治疗这些人群的能力，而且即使是病理生理学研究和治疗策略的制定也需要密切关注种族和伦理多样性。几乎没有发表的研究表明，宿主遗传因素可能在决定宿主对艾滋病毒痴呆的易感性方面起关键作用，随着药物遗传学领域的发展，治疗策略也需要根据宿主遗传学进行量身定做。另一个主要障碍是在神经艾滋病研究领域缺乏来自种族和少数民族群体的科学家。我们已经采取了几个步骤来解决每一个问题。我们制定了一个计划，前提是科学多样性的主要障碍不是缺乏人才，而是缺乏机会。我们设计了一门关于神经艾滋病的课程，不仅使用了该领域最先进的技术和最好的教师和研究人员，而且课程内容专门针对每个问题，并指出了实现这些目标所需的研究领域。这门为期12周的课程将进行网络直播，这样学生就可以在全国任何地方学习，同时还可以积极地与老师进行讨论。在这个教学课程之后，将有一个为期3-6个月的基于实验室的项目，供选定的学生为专注于神经艾滋病的应用程序生成初步数据。为了实现这些目标，我们将利用我们与波多黎各大学和夏威夷大学的现有合作，培训来自种族和少数民族的学生和博士后研究员。我们还将培训约翰·霍普金斯大学的研究人员，让他们了解少数族裔中感染艾滋病毒的人群所面临的问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): HIV infection of the nervous system frequently results in neuropsychiatric complications and is a major cause of disability in the HIV infected population. To date there is no effective treatment for the illness and is further complicated by the fact that this infection disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities. Several barriers need to be overcome if we want to make a significant impact on this illness. Not only do we need to understand the social and cultural diversities that impact the spread of this infection and our ability to treat these populations, but even the pathophysiological studies and development of treatment strategies need to pay close attention to racial and ethic diversity. Few published studies suggest that host genetic factors may be critical in determining host susceptibility to HIV dementia and as the field of pharmacogenetics is evolving, it is also becoming clear that treatment strategies also need to be tailored based of host genetics. Another major barrier is the lack of scientists from racial and ethnic minority groups in the field of NeuroAIDS research. We have taken several steps to address each of these issues. We have developed a program on the premise that the principal barrier to diversity in science is not a lack of talent, but rather a lack of opportunity. We devised a course in NeuroAIDS that not only uses the state of the art technology and the best teachers and researchers in the field, but the subject content is specifically geared to address each of the issues and point out areas of research that are needed to accomplish these goals. This 12 week course will be webcast so that students will be able to take it from anywhere in the country and yet actively engage in a discussion with the teachers. This didactic course will be followed up with a laboratory based project for a duration of 3-6 months for select students to generate preliminary data for a application focused on neuro-AIDS. To accomplish these goals, we will exploit our existing collaborations with University of Puerto Rico and University of Hawaii to train students and postdoctoral fellows from racial and ethnic minorities. We will also train researchers at Johns Hopkins University in issues that face HIV infected populations of racial and ethnic minorities.