Hegemonic structure of basic, clinical and patented knowledge on Ebola research: a US army reductionist initiative.

David Fajardo-Ortiz,Victor M Castaño,José Ortega-Sánchez-De-Tagle

doi:10.1186/s12967-015-0496-y

Abstract

BackgroundEbola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola) is still a highly lethal infectious disease long affecting mainly neglected populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, this disease is now considered a potential worldwide threat. In this paper, we present an approach to understand how the basic, clinical and patent knowledge on Ebola is organized and intercommunicated and what leading factor could be shaping the evolution of the knowledge translation process for this disease.MethodologyA combination of citation network analysis; analysis of Medical heading Subject (MeSH) and Gene Ontology (GO) terms, and quantitative content analysis for patents and scientific literature, aimed to map the organization of Ebola research was carried out.ResultsWe found six putative research fronts (i.e. clusters of high interconnected papers). Three research fronts are basic research on Ebola virus structural proteins: glycoprotein, VP40 and VP35, respectively. There is a fourth research front of basic research papers on pathogenesis, which is the organizing hub of Ebola research. A fifth research front is pre-clinical research focused on vaccines and glycoproteins. Finally, a clinical-epidemiology research front related to the disease outbreaks was identified. The network structure of patent families shows that the dominant design is the use of Ebola virus proteins as targets of vaccines and other immunological treatments. Therefore, patents network organization resembles the organization of the scientific literature. Specifically, the knowledge on Ebola would flow from higher (clinical-epidemiology) to intermediated (cellular-tissular pathogenesis) to lower (molecular interactions) levels of organization.ConclusionOur results suggest a strong reductionist approach for Ebola research probably influenced by the lethality of the disease. On the other hand, the ownership profile of the patent families network and the main researches relationship with the United State Army suggest a strong involvement of this military institution in Ebola research.

Highlights

Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola) is still a highly lethal infectious disease long affecting mainly neglected populations in sub-Saharan Africa
Clust&See divided the network in seven clusters (Figure 1). These clusters of papers are mainly organized around three structural proteins of the Ebola virus, according to the Gene Ontology (GO) and Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms distribution (Figure 1 and Table 1)
The clusters are numbered according to their size rank and named with their most representative GO or MeSH terms

Summary

Introduction

Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola) is still a highly lethal infectious disease long affecting mainly neglected populations in sub-Saharan Africa. This disease is considered a potential worldwide threat. Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola) is an acute viral disease with high lethality rates [1], which overwhelmingly affects populations in Sub-Saharan Africa [2]. The possible stigmatization of Africa as an exporter of dangerous diseases like Ebola, is exemplified [11] by Richard Preston’s non-fiction Bestseller “The Hot Zone” [14] In this regard, Haynes states that: “Preston exploits post-Cold War insecurities about African contamination in the narrative structure of The Hot Zone. Murdocca states on the case of a patient wrongly diagnosed with Ebola in Canada in 2001 that “representation of immigrants as vectors of disease is a useful and coercive tool in the project of justifying immigration reform and the state control of racial bodies” [12]

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Discussion

Conclusion