Nano-enhanced immunity: A bibliometric analysis of nanoparticles in vaccine adjuvant research

Abstract

This study analyzed the growth, collaboration, citation trends, and emerging topics in nanoparticle-based vaccine and adjuvant research (NVAR) from 1977 to 2023, using data from the Scopus database. The field showed a steady growth rate of 7.53% per year. Leading researchers Jaafari, M.R. and Alving, C.R. contributed significantly to the field, with 24.22% of publications and 38.92% of total citations coming from the United States. International collaboration was very strong, particularly between the US, UK, Germany, China, and France. Key research topics include nanoparticles, immunotherapy, COVID-19, and vaccines with a focus on SARS-CoV-2 and malaria. Emerging topics include vaccine adjuvants, mRNA, and neutralizing antibodies. This study emphasizes the importance of ongoing collaboration and interdisciplinary efforts to advance the field of NVAR.

Keywords: COVID-19; Nanoparticle-based vaccine; adjuvant research; collaboration; immunotherapy.

Figure 1.

Application of nanotechnology and advantages in vaccine developments and nano-enhanced immunity.

Figure 2.

Search strategy and selection of studies according to the PRISMA guidelines. the used query is (TITLE-ABS-KEY (vaccines) and TITLE-ABS-KEY (nanotechnology or nanoparticles or “nanocrystalline materials” or nanocrystals or liposomes or “solid lipid nanoparticle” or nanosome) and (LIMIT-TO (Doctype,“ar”) and (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, “English”).

Figure 3.

Sankey diagram or comparative proliferation. AU: authors; AU_CO: country of the authors; SO: sources. The thickness of the lines connecting authors from different countries would represent the number of papers that they have coauthored. The thickness of the lines connecting countries and sources would represent the number of documents from each country published in each head. Each rectangle represents a node. The rectangle’s size means the node’s importance in the network. This figure was generated using the Bibliometrix application and the BibTex data file.

Figure 4.

Lotka’s (a) and Bradford’s (b) curves.

Figure 5.

(a): annual publication trends of NVAR. Y-axis: the number articles published. X-axis: the years since the first article published in the topic of this paper. (b): average citation per year.

Figure 6.

Co-authorship network analysis. (a): Co-authorship networks among countries were analyzed using VOSviewer, representing countries as nodes and collaborations as links. Based on TLS values, the United States emerged as the leading collaborative country in NVAR. (b): countries with blue color were new to the collaborative research in NVAR. (c): lines indicate the number of collaborative research projects. This figure was generated using the Bibliometrix application and the BibTex data file. (d): countries with the highest number of citations in NVAR based on the total number of citations received.

Figure 7.

Keywords’ co-occurrence. The top 50 keywords were mapped using VOS viewer.

Figure 8.

Thematic evolution of the NVAR. 2018 was a crucial point for the transformation of the main topics. This figure was generated using the Bibliometrix application and the BibTex data file.

Figure 9.

Thematic map of the NVAR. Thematic maps are divided into four quadrants based on centrality and density, representing the importance and development of research topics. This figure was generated using the Bibliometrix application and the BibTex data file.

Figure 10.

Vosviewer analysis of co-citation of authors. Two clusters were detected. A total of 441,992 authors were co-cited in NVAR. Seventeen of them have been co-cited 1500 times.