Research trends and hotspots of ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases from 2013 to 2023: A bibliometrics study

Ning Liu; Wuhan Yu; Mengjiao Sun; Dan Zhou; Jing Sun; Taotao Jiang; Wenjing Zhang; Manxia Wang

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29418

Research trends and hotspots of ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases from 2013 to 2023: A bibliometrics study

Heliyon. 2024 Apr 9;10(8):e29418. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29418. eCollection 2024 Apr 30.

Authors

Ning Liu¹, Wuhan Yu^{2

3}, Mengjiao Sun⁴, Dan Zhou⁵, Jing Sun¹, Taotao Jiang¹, Wenjing Zhang⁶, Manxia Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, 730030, China.
² Department of General Surgery, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, 730030, China.
³ Department of Anus and Intestine Surgery, The First Dongguan Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, 523000, China.
⁴ Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100000, China.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Xi 'an Ninth Hospital, Xi 'an, 710000, China.
⁶ Department of Neurology, Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, Qinghai, 810000, China.

Abstract

Background: With the aging population, the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases increases yearly, seriously impacting human health. Various journals have published studies on the pathogenesis of ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases. However, bibliometric analysis in this field is still lacking. The study aims to visually analyze global research trends in this field over the past decade.

Methods: The articles and reviews regarding ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases were retrieved from the Web of Science on September 1, 2023. Citespace [version 6.2. R4 (64-bit)] and VOSviewer (version 1.6.18) were used to conduct the bibliometric and knowledge-map analysis.

Results: In total, 370 studies were included in the paper and ranked by their citation frequency. Many articles on ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases have been published in the past decade. The country, institution, author, and journal with the highest publications were China, Guangzhou Medical University, Maher, Pamela, and Free Radical Biology And Medicine, respectively. The analysis of keyword co-occurrence indicated that research frontiers were molecular mechanisms of ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases, especially a few key pathways that triggered ferroptosis in these diseases, including lipid peroxidation signaling, iron metabolism, and GSH/GPX4 signaling. In addition, ferroptosis inhibitors such as liproxstatins and ferrostatins had protective effects in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, future attention should also be focused on therapeutic drugs that target ferroptosis.

Conclusion: This study comprehensively analyzed the publications on ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases from a bibliometric perspective. Research on this topic is currently expanding at a rapid pace, and the China holds a leading position in this field by its scientific achievements and productivity. Moreover, the research frontiers were molecular mechanisms of ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases and developing targeted therapeutic drugs. In summary, our results showed an all-sided overview of the knowledge atlas and a valuable reference for the future research in this field.

Keywords: Bibliometric analysis; Brain-aging; Ferroptosis; Neurodegenerative diseases; Web of science.