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. 2025 Jun 13:12:1599196.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1599196. eCollection 2025.

Emerging trends and focus of Toll-like receptors in kidney diseases: a 20-year bibliometric analysis

Peihan Liu #  1 , Xinyao Luo #  1 , Dingyuan Wan  2 , Yupei Li  1 , Baihai Su  1
Affiliations

Emerging trends and focus of Toll-like receptors in kidney diseases: a 20-year bibliometric analysis

Peihan Liu et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Background: An increasing number of studies have explored the role of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in the pathogenesis of kidney diseases and their corresponding therapeutic potential. However, there is no comprehensive bibliometric analysis in this field. This study aims to investigate the hotspots and evolution of TLRs and kidney disease research over the past two decades.

Methods: Publications from the Web of Science Core Collection database were searched and extracted on December 21, 2024 using the terms "Toll-like receptor" and "kidney disease" (and their synonyms in MeSH). CiteSpace was used to explore publications from January 1, 2000, to December 21, 2024, to visualize the contributions of countries, institutions, journals, and authors, and to detect the evolution of research focus and emerging trends in this field.

Results: A total of 2,505 studies with 101,150 references were included in this study. The United States and China are the leading forces among all countries. The Egyptian Knowledge Bank is the leading institution, and Hans-Joachim Anders is considered the most influential expert in this field. PLOS One is the journal with the most publications, and Journal of Immunology is the most co-cited journal. According to the co-citation analysis, COVID-19 is the latest research hotspot. Additionally, both ischemia-reperfusion injury and diabetic nephropathy have been long-standing research hotspots and still hold significant values. Moreover, the use of TLR inhibitors as a therapeutic strategy for kidney diseases is increasingly emphasized.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrates a growing understanding of the crucial role of TLRs in kidney diseases over the past two decades. Future research should attach more importance to the identification of novel endogenous ligands for TLRs, which will be critical for developing TLR inhibitors as a viable therapeutic strategy.

Keywords: Toll-like receptors; bibliometric analysis; inflammation; ischemic acute kidney injury; kidney diseases.

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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
Mechanisms of TLRs in kidney diseases.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
PRISMA flow chart of the study.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
The co-country analysis in the field of TLRs and kidney diseases during January 2000–December 2024. (A) The collaboration network of countries. (B) Total distribution comparison of the top 9 most published countries and centralities. (C) Total publications and centralities comparison of the top 9 most published countries. (D) Annual publications of the top three productive countries.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The co-institution analysis in the field of TLRs and kidney diseases during January 2000–December 2024. (A) The collaboration network of institutions. (B) Total publications and centralities comparison of the top 10 most published institution. (C) Proportion of the top 10 most published institutions. (D) Annual publications of the top three productive institutions.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
The collaboration network of scholars.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
The co-citation knowledge map in the field of TLRs and kidney diseases during January 2000–December 2024. Ten clusters with different research topics were formed, reflecting in different colors on the map. Cluster#6 COVID-19 was the most recent research directions.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Top 25 references with the strongest citation bursts from January 2000 to December 2024.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts from January 2017 to December 2024.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Top 20 references with the strongest citation bursts from January 2017 to December 2024.
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