Vaccine research in cognitive impairment and dementia: a bibliometric analysis and future outlook (2000-2025)

Vaccine research has shifted from a purely anti-infective tool to a promising therapeutic and preventive strategy against cognitive impairment (CI) and dementia. Yet the knowledge domain linking vaccine to neurodegeneration has never been systematically mapped.

We retrieved English-language articles and reviews on vaccine and CI/dementia in Web of Science and PubMed (2000-2025). After rigorous screening, 1,395 publications were analyzed with Excel, VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Scimago Graphica and Charticulator to chart output trajectories, collaborative networks, influential journals, high-impact papers, keyword evolution and co-citation clusters.

Annual publications rose nearly 10-fold, peaking at >90 papers in 2022. The United States dominated output and collaboration, flanked by an increasingly interconnected European core and a fast growing Asia-Pacific node. Four institutional clusters were identified, with the UC system, NYU and Harvard leading. Author co-authorship revealed a dense hub around Cribbs, Agadjanyan and Ghochikyan, while recent entrants from China and Europe diversified the landscape. Keyword, timeline and burst analyses showed a thematic shift from β-amyloid vaccine studies (2000-2008) to passive immunotherapy and biomarker-guided translation (2009-2016), and, most recently (2017-2024), to multivalent vaccine engineering, immunosenescence. Co-citation clusters tracked the field's progression from plaque-centred paradigms to oligomer-targeted, multi-pathway approaches and highlighted emerging interest in innate immunity and infection-mediated neuroinflammation.

Vaccine research in CI/dementia has matured into a multidisciplinary, prevention-oriented enterprise. Future priorities include (i) multi-epitope or mRNA-based vaccines that address amyloid, tau and inflammatory cascades; (ii) strategies to overcome immunosenescence for earlier, prophylactic immunization; (iii) mechanistic and interventional studies to validate the neuroprotective signals seen with routine adult vaccines. These directions will be pivotal for translating immunological insights into effective, population-level protection against dementia.