Bibliometric analysis of global research trends on regulatory T cells in neurological diseases

Abstract

This bibliometric study aimed to summarize and visualize the current research status, emerging trends, and research hotspots of regulatory T (Treg) cells in neurological diseases. Relevant documents were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Tableau Public, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace software were used to perform bibliometric analysis and network visualization. A total of 2,739 documents were included, and research on Treg cells in neurological diseases is still in a prolific period. The documents included in the research were sourced from 85 countries/regions, with the majority of them originating from the United States, and 2,811 organizations, with a significant proportion of them coming from Harvard Medical School. Howard E Gendelman was the most prolific author in this research area. Considering the number of documents and citations, impact factors, and JCR partitions, Frontiers in Immunology was the most popular journal in this research area. Keywords "multiple sclerosis," "inflammation," "regulatory T cells," "neuroinflammation," "autoimmunity," "cytokines," and "immunomodulation" were identified as high-frequency keywords. Additionally, "gut microbiota" has recently emerged as a new topic of interest. The study of Treg cells in neurological diseases continues to be a hot topic. Immunomodulation, gut microbiota, and cytokines represent the current research hotspots and frontiers in this field. Treg cell-based immunomodulatory approaches have shown immense potential in the treatment of neurological diseases. Modifying gut microbiota or regulating cytokines to boost the numbers and functions of Treg cells represents a promising therapeutic strategy for neurological diseases.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; cytokines; gut microbiota; immunomodulation; neurological diseases; regulatory T cells.

Figure 1

Flowchart of the document-screening process and research framework.

Figure 2

Trends of annual documents related to Treg cells in neurological diseases.

Figure 3

Co-authorship analysis of countries/regions. (A) Geographic distribution of documents. The darker the color, the more documents in this country/region. (B) Trends of annual documents of the top 10 countries/regions. (C) Visualization map of countries/regions collaboration analysis. Each node represents a country/region, and the node size is positively correlated with the number of documents. The connection between nodes represents collaboration. Countries/regions with citation bursts are presented with red nodes, and nodes with purple rings have high centrality values.

Figure 4

Co-authorship analysis of organizations. (A) Visualization map of organizations collaboration analysis. Each node represents an organization, and the node size is positively correlated with the number of documents. The connection between nodes represents collaboration, and the distance and thickness of the connection represent the relative strength of the relationship. (B) Visualization map of the top 10 organizations' collaboration. The color means the average published year. (C) Top 24 organizations with the strongest citation bursts. Minimum duration: 2.

Figure 5

Co-authorship analysis of authors. (A) Visualization map of authors collaboration analysis. Each node represents an author, and the node size is positively correlated with the number of documents. The connection between nodes represents collaboration, and the distance and thickness of the connection represent the relative strength of the relationship. The color means the average published year. (B) Cooperative network of Gendelman HE. (C) Top 14 authors with the strongest citation bursts. Minimum duration: 2.

Figure 6

Co-occurrence analysis of keywords. (A) Visualization map of author keywords analysis. Each node represents an author keyword, and the node size is positively correlated with the number of documents containing the author keyword. The connection between nodes represents co-occurrence. The color means the average published year. (B) Timeline view of keywords clustering analysis. The different colored horizontal lines on the right represent the clusters formed by the keywords, nodes on the horizontal lines represent keywords, and the position of nodes on the horizontal lines represents the year in which the document containing the keywords first appeared. (C) Top 30 keywords with the strongest citation bursts. Minimum duration: 6.

Figure 7

Co-citation analysis of cited references. (A) The density map of cited references based on citations. The opacity of yellow is positively related to citations. (B) Top 7 references with the strongest citation bursts. Minimum duration: 6.