Poplawska-Domaszewicz Karolina, Limbachiya Naomi, Qamar Mubasher, Batzu Lucia, Jones Shelley, Sauerbier Anna, Rota Silvia, Lau Yue Hui, Chaudhuri K Ray
Department of Neurology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-355 Poznan, Poland.
Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Department, The Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, 5 Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RX, UK.
J Pers Med. 2024 Sep 3;14(9):939. doi: 10.3390/jpm14090939.
Catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitors (COMT-Is) have significantly improved the quality of life and symptom management for those at advanced stages of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Given that PD is one of the fastest-growing neurodegenerative diseases worldwide, there is a need to establish a clear framework for the systematic distribution of COMT-Is, considering inter-individual and intra-individual variations in patient response. One major barrier to this is the underrepresentation of ethnic minority participants in clinical trials investigating COMT-Is. To investigate this, we performed a narrative review. We searched PubMed for clinical trials investigating COMT-Is in patients with PD and examined the ethnic diversity of cohorts. A total of 63 articles were identified, with 34 trials found to match our inclusion criteria. Among the 34 trials meeting our inclusion criteria, only 8 reported participants' ethnic backgrounds. Our findings reveal a consistent underrepresentation of ethnic minority groups in trials investigating COMT-Is in PD cohorts-a trend that reflects broader concerns across clinical research. In this review, we explore potential reasons for the underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in clinical trials and propose strategies to address this issue.
儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶抑制剂（COMT-Is）显著改善了帕金森病（PD）晚期患者的生活质量并有助于症状管理。鉴于PD是全球增长最快的神经退行性疾病之一，考虑到患者个体间和个体内反应的差异，有必要建立一个明确的COMT-Is系统分发框架。这其中的一个主要障碍是少数民族参与者在研究COMT-Is的临床试验中代表性不足。为了对此进行调查，我们进行了一项叙述性综述。我们在PubMed上搜索了针对PD患者研究COMT-Is的临床试验，并检查了队列的种族多样性。共识别出63篇文章，其中34项试验符合我们的纳入标准。在符合我们纳入标准的34项试验中，只有8项报告了参与者的种族背景。我们的研究结果显示，在研究PD队列中COMT-Is的试验中，少数民族群体的代表性一直不足——这一趋势反映了临床研究中更广泛的问题。在本综述中，我们探讨了临床试验中少数民族代表性不足的潜在原因，并提出了解决这一问题的策略。
