Emerging trends and hotspots of Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 in nervous system diseases

The Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) transcription factor has attracted much attention in the context of neurological diseases. However, none of the studies have systematically clarified this field's research hotspots and evolution rules.

To investigate the research hotspots, evolution patterns, and future research trends in this field in recent years.

We conducted a comprehensive literature search in the Web of Science Core Collection database using the following methods: (((((TS=(NFE2 L2)) OR TS=(Nfe2 L2 protein, mouse)) OR TS=(NF-E2-Related Factor 2)) OR TS=(NRF2)) OR TS=(NFE2L2)) OR TS=(Nuclear factor erythroid2-related factor 2) AND (((((((TS=(neurological diseases)) OR TS=(neurological disorder)) OR TS=(brain disorder)) OR TS=(brain injury)) OR TS=(central nervous system disease)) OR TS=(CNS disease)) OR TS=(central nervous system disorder)) OR TS=(CNS disorder) AND Language = English from 2010 to 2022. There are just two forms of literature available: Articles and reviews. Data were processed with the software Cite-Space (version 6.1. R6).

We analyzed 1884 articles from 200 schools in 72 countries/regions. Since 2015, the number of publications in this field has increased rapidly. China has the largest number of publications, but the articles published in the United States have better centrality and H-index. Among the top ten authors with the most published papers, five of them are from China, and the author with the most published papers is Wang Handong. The institution with the most articles was Nanjing University. To their credit, three of the top 10 most cited articles were written by Chinese scholars. The keyword co-occurrence map showed that "oxidative stress", "NRF2", "activation", "expression" and "brain" were the five most frequently used keywords.

Research on the role of NRF2 in neurological diseases continues unabated. Researchers in developed countries published more influential papers, while Chinese scholars provided the largest number of articles. There have been numerous studies on the mechanism of NRF2 transcription factor in neurological diseases. NRF2 is also emerging as a potentially effective target for the treatment of neurological diseases. However, despite decades of research, our knowledge of NRF2 transcription factor in nervous system diseases is still limited. Further studies are needed in the future.