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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Phage Biology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1606351

This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations in Phage Biocontrol: Advancing Technology and ApplicationsView all 5 articles

Evolutionary Dynamics and Research Hotspots of Phage Applications Against Acinetobacter baumannii Infections from the past to the new era

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Qinghai University Medical College, Xining, China
  • 2Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, Xining, Qinghai Province, China
  • 3Research Center for High Altitude Medicine, Key Laboratory for High Altitude Medicine, Ministry of Education, Qinghai University, Xining, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background : Acinetobacter baumannii is a common hospital pathogen that poses a serious clinical challenge due to its rapidly increasing resistance to antibiotics. Phage therapy has been successfully used to treat antibiotic resistant A. baumannii infections. The aim of this study was to comprehensively assess the current status and trend of research on the application of phages in A. baumannii infections through bibliometric analysis.Methods: Studies on phages and A. baumannii infections were searched in the Web of Science Core Collection database and relevant articles were selected for inclusion in the study based on the inclusion criteria. Bibliometric and visual analysis of the included publications were performed using VOSviewer and CiteSpace software.Results: A total of 264 studies were included. There is an increasing trend in the number of publications per year from 2010 to 2024. China was the leading country with 35.98% of the total publications. Tzu Chi University and Lin, Nien-Tsung were the most influential institution and author, respectively. The journal with the highest H-index was Frontiers in Microbiology, and Viruses-Basel was the most prolific journal. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy was the most cited journal. Phages endolysin and phage therapy were found to be the widely researched aspects, biofilm, phage resistance and synergistic effect are recent research hotspots.In the last decade or so, this is the first bibliometric study that systematically describes the research hotspots and development trends on phages in A. baumannii infections. Research hotspots should be given more attention.

Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii, Phages therapy, bibliometric analysis, Biofilm, phage resistance, synergistic effect

Received: 05 Apr 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 JIANG, Luo, Zhao, Sun, SU and Cheng. 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:
Zhanhai SU, Qinghai University Medical College, Xining, China
Peng Cheng, Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, Xining, Qinghai Province, China

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