Bibliometric analysis of antimalarial drug resistance

Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2024 Feb 12:14:1270060. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1270060. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Background: Malaria has always been a serious infectious disease prevalent in the world. Antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine and artemisinin have been the main compounds used to treat malaria. However, the massive use of this type of drugs accelerates the evolution and spread of malaria parasites, leading to the development of resistance. A large number of related data have been published by researchers in recent years. CiteSpace software has gained popularity among us researchers in recent years, because of its ability to help us obtain the core information we want in a mass of articles. In order to analyze the hotspots and develop trends in this field through visual analysis, this study used CiteSpace software to summarize the available data in the literature to provide insights.

Method: Relevant literature was collected from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) from 1 January 2015 to 29 March 2023. CiteSpace software and Microsoft Excel were used to analyze and present the data, respectively.

Results: A total of 2,561 literatures were retrieved and 2,559 literatures were included in the analysis after the removal of duplicates. An irrefutable witness of the ever-growing interest in the topic of antimalarial drug resistance could be expressed by the exponentially increased number of publications and related citations from 2015 to 2022, and its sustained growth trend by 2023. During the past 7 years, USA, Oxford University, and David A Fidock are the country, institution, and author with the most publications in this field of research, respectively. We focused on the references and keywords from literature and found that the research and development of new drugs is the newest hotspot in this field. A growing number of scientists are devoted to finding new antimalarial drugs.

Conclusion: This study is the first visual metrological analysis of antimalarial drug resistance, using bibliometric methods. As a baseline information, it is important to analyze research output published globally on antimalarial drug resistance. In order to better understand the current research situation and future research plan agenda, such baseline data are needed accordingly.

Keywords: CiteSpace; anti-malarial; antimalarial drug; bibliometric analysis; resistance.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Antimalarials* / pharmacology
  • Antimalarials* / therapeutic use
  • Bibliometrics
  • Chloroquine / pharmacology
  • Chloroquine / therapeutic use
  • Folic Acid Antagonists*
  • Humans
  • Malaria* / drug therapy
  • Malaria* / epidemiology

Substances

  • Antimalarials
  • Chloroquine
  • Folic Acid Antagonists

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82004037), Introduce innovative team projects of Jinan (No. 202228029), Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Project of Shandong Province (M-2022173), and Academician Workstation of Jinnan. All sponsors provided software support, as well as data download support.