Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 7, 2023; 29(37): 5339-5360
Published online Oct 7, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i37.5339
Global trends and hotspots of treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A bibliometric and visualization analysis (2010-2023)
Jin-Jin Dai, Ya-Fei Zhang, Zhen-Hua Zhang
Jin-Jin Dai, Department of Infectious Diseases, Suzhou Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Suzhou 234000, Anhui Province, China
Jin-Jin Dai, Ya-Fei Zhang, Zhen-Hua Zhang, Department of Infectious Diseases, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230601, Anhui Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang ZH and Dai JJ conceived and designed the study; Dai JJ performed the research, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Zhang ZH and Zhang YF supervised the study; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript as submitted.
Supported by National Science Foundation of China, No. 81273142; Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation, No. 2108085MH298; University Scientific Research Project of Anhui Provincial Education Department, No. KJ2021A0323; Fund of Anhui Medical University, No. 2021xkj196; Clinical Medicine project of Anhui Medical University, No. 2021LCXK027; The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University Natural Science Foundation, No. 2019GMFY02.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhen-Hua Zhang, MD, Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 678 Furong Road, Hefei 230601, Anhui Province, China. zzh1974cn@163.com
Received: June 25, 2023
Peer-review started: June 25, 2023
First decision: July 23, 2023
Revised: July 26, 2023
Accepted: September 4, 2023
Article in press: September 4, 2023
Published online: October 7, 2023
Processing time: 92 Days and 6.3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic disease that threatens the lives of numerous people globally. However, there are limited bibliometric statistical analyses on NAFLD. In this study, we conducted a bibliometric analysis to examine previous research on NAFLD, aiming to identify key contributors and assess the current research status in the field of liver health. Moreover, we identified prospects for future research trends and development.

Research motivation

The progression of NAFLD leads to liver fibrosis and end-stage cirrhosis. However, no treatment has been established. Many mechanistic studies and drug trials have been undertaken for the development of new drugs for NAFLD treatment. In particular, NAFLD was renamed metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), and there was a major shift in treatment strategy. It is necessary to understand the knowledge structure of NAFLD through bibliometrics, focusing on research hotspots in order to explore the direction of development in this field.

Research objectives

The treatment of NAFLD has important research value and application prospects. It is anticipated that drugs may become available in the near future. However, no drugs are currently approved. Clinical phase 2b and phase 3 studies have achieved certain efficacy. While trends and hotspots can be clearly studied through bibliometric analysis, clues can reveal possible future therapeutic strategies for scholars in the field.

Research methods

Bibliometric analysis was applied to provide a comprehensive understanding of the knowledge structure of a research field, and visualization analysis was used to visualize the results. Historiography analysis, bursts and cluster analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and trend topic analysis were also utilized to reveal the knowledge structure and research hotspots in this field.

Research results

The bibliometric study identified recent research frontiers and hotspot directions, which will provide a valuable reference for scholars researching treatments for NAFLD. The leading countries publishing NAFLD research are the United States and China. The NAFLD research field in China has developed rapidly in the past 3 years.

Research conclusions

Research on the treatment and therapeutics of NAFLD, especially nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, is highly valued by the global academic community. It is likely that obeticholic acid, which has entered phase 3 clinical validation, and semaglutide, which is currently under study, will become the first approved drugs for the treatment of NAFLD.

Research perspectives

The multiple-hit pathogenesis of NAFLD and the renaming of NAFLD to MAFLD requires enhanced multidisciplinary and multicenter cooperation. More clinical trials are needed to verify the safety and efficacy of drugs and to discover new ones.