SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neuroinflammation and Neuropathy
Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1587575
A Bibliometric Analysis of Immune System and Cognitive Impairment: Trends from 1985 to 2024
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Cardiology, International School of Medicine, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of School of Medicine, International Institutes of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Yiwu, China
- 2Shanghai Weiyu High School, Xuhui District, Weiyu Road 1, Shanghai, China
- 3Shanghai Xuhui Central Hospital, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Cognitive impairment is closely linked to immune system dysfunction, with increasing research interest in its underlying mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets. Bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive approach to understanding research trends, influential contributions, and emerging topics in this interdisciplinary field. Methods: This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of publications related to immune system and cognitive impairment from 1985 to 2024, retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. CiteSpace (6.4.R1), VOSviewer (1.6.20), and Rbibliometrix (R 4.3.0) were employed to analyze publication trends, co-authorship networks, keyword clustering, and co-citation patterns. Key metrics, including the Hindex, G-index, and M-index, were computed to assess academic influence. Results: A total of 3,737 publications were analyzed, revealing a significant increase in research output since 2021. The United States and China emerged as leading contributors, with a strong presence of collaborative networks. Keyword and cocitation analysis identified core research themes, including neuroinflammation, microglia activation, gut microbiota, TREM2-mediated immune responses, and inflammasomes. Emerging topics such as the gut-brain axis, metabolic syndromes, and immune regulation in neurodegenerative diseases have gained prominence in recent years. Highly cited papers highlighted the role of immune dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. Conclusion: This bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of research trends in immune-related cognitive impairment. The findings indicate an increasing focus on neuroinflammatory mechanisms, immune cell interactions, and novel immunotherapeutic strategies. Future research is expected to further explore the gut-immune-brain axis and precision medicine approaches in the management of cognitive disorders. These findings may facilitate early detection strategies and novel interventions targeting immune-cognitive interactions, such as gut-brain axis modulation.
Keywords: cognitive impairment, Immune System, Bibliometric, Neuroinflammation, Microglia, Gut Microbiota, TREM2, Co-citation
Received: 04 Mar 2025; Accepted: 24 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zou, Xiang, Zhang, Feng and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chao Feng, Department of Cardiology, International School of Medicine, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of School of Medicine, International Institutes of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Yiwu, China
Jing Huang, Shanghai Xuhui Central Hospital, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.