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. 2023 Nov 29:14:1218968.
doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1218968. eCollection 2023.

A bibliometric analysis of PCSK9 inhibitors from 2007 to 2022

Qin Luo #  1   2 , Zhenchu Tang #  3   4 , Panyun Wu  1   2 , Zhangling Chen  1   2 , Zhenfei Fang  1   2 , Fei Luo  1   2
Affiliations

A bibliometric analysis of PCSK9 inhibitors from 2007 to 2022

Qin Luo et al. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Background: Since the approval of the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) monoclonal antibodies for marketing in 2015, PCSK9 inhibitors have attracted significant interest in the field of cardiovascular endocrinology. A large number of clinical trials have confirmed the efficacy and safety of PCSK9 inhibitors in reducing cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular events. No bibliometric analysis of PCSK9 inhibitors has been performed as of yet. This study aims to analyze the research trends and hotspots of PCSK9 inhibitors through bibliometric analysis.

Methods: We searched the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database for PCSK9 inhibitor-related publications from 2007 to 2022. Data visualization analysis was performed using CiteSpace software. Microsoft Excel and Graphpad software were used for the drawing of some tables and figures.

Results: A total of 1072 pieces of literature were retrieved between 2007 and 2022. The number of publications concerning PCSK9 inhibitors is growing annually. The top five countries with the most articles published were the United States, England, Canada, Italy, and France. Harvard University, Amgen, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Imperial College London are the five institutions with the highest output. The Journal of Clinical Lipidology is the most popular journal in this field. The most frequently cited journal is the New England Journal of Medicine. As for authors, Sabatine MS and Giugliano RP from Brigham & Women's Hospital have the highest number of published articles. Amgen is the funding agency for most of the research. According to keyword analysis, "low density lipoprotein", "familial hypercholesterolemia", "PCSK9 inhibitor", "PCSK9", and "efficacy" are the five keywords with the highest frequency of co-occurrence.

Conclusion: The past 15 years have witnessed a rapid and fruitful development of PCSK9 inhibitors. The research trend and focus for PCSK9 inhibitors are from the mechanism of reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to related clinical trials. Developed countries such as the United States have contributed prominently in this area. Coronary artery and inflammation are currently at the forefront of research in the field and are in an explosion period.

Keywords: PCSK9 inhibitors; bibliometric analysis; cardiovascular endocrinology; data visualization; hotspots; trend.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A timeline of significant findings on PCSK9 in lipid metabolism. LDLR, low-density lipoprotein receptor; FH, familial hypercholesterolemia; CVD, cardiovascular disease; mAbs, monoclonal antibodies; ASCVD, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; siRNA, small interfering RNA.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Flowchart of the literature search and selection process. (B) Global trend of annual publications and citations related to PCSK9 inhibitors from 2007 to 2022.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Visual maps of publications over countries studying PCSK9 inhibitors. Each node represents a country, and node size indicates the number of publications. The connection between the nodes represents a co-occurrence relationship. The figure shows the top countries in terms of the number of published articles. The USA ranks first, and the other countries are England, Canada, Italy, and France. The lines between the nodes represent the cooperation between different countries.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) Top six countries. (B) Top 20 institutions, and (C) Top 20 authors with the strongest citation bursts (2007–2022). Burst refers to a sudden increase in the number of citations in a certain period, suggesting an increased research in such a field. The red bands indicate the duration of burst.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Publications over institutions. The node size represents the number of articles. The larger the node, the greater the number of articles. (A) The highest number of publications is from Amgen Inc, Harvard Med Sch, Sanofi, Regeneron Pharmaceut Inc, Brigham & Womens Hosp, Imperial Coll London, Univ Montreal, Univ Toronto, Univ Milan, Univ Colorado. (B) The highest centrality institutions are Ben Gurion Univ Negev, Imperial Coll London, Leiden Univ, Hacettepe Univ, ASST Papa Giovanni XXII, AMR Inc, Wojskowy Szpital Klin Poliklin SPZOZ, AS Ida Tallinna Keskhaigla, Acad Med Ctr, Baylor Univ. The lines between the nodes represent the cooperation between the different institutions.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(A) The top 30 references with the strongest citation bursts. The red segment represents the begin and end years of the burst duration. (B) Top 25 keywords with the strongest citation bursts (2007–2022). Burst refers to a sudden increase in the number of citations in a certain period, suggesting an increased research in such a field. The red bands indicate the duration of burst.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The dual map overlay of journals contributed to publications on the application of PCSK9 inhibitors from 2007 to 2022. All the orange paths showed articles in the research fields of molecular/biology/immunology are more likely to cite articles in the field of molecular, biology, genetics. While the green path showed articles in medicine/medical/clinical fieds are divided into two parts, one is health/nursing/medicine, the other is molecular/biology/genetics.
Figure 8
Figure 8
(A) Co-occurrence Analysis of keywords. Each node represents a keyword, and node size indicates the number of occurrences. The connection between the nodes represents a co-occurrence relationship. The top ten co-occurrence keywords are “low density lipoprotein” (391), “familial hypercholesterolemia” (305), “pcsk9 inhibitor” (265), “pcsk9” (230), “efficacy” (221), “safety” (187), “risk” (164), “cholesterol” (159), “cardiovascular disease” (158), and “monoclonal antibody” (149). (B) Circles indicated keywords; the size of the diameter of the circle was closely related to the number of occurrences; those with purple circles stated the existence of significant turning points in scientific knowledge, i.e., higher centrality; the purple axis indicated 2007-2022; yellow circles still in the red rectangle indicated the occurrence of novel related keywords.
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