Bibliometric analysis of the African Health Sciences' research indexed in Web of Science and Scopus.

Background: The Journal of African Health Sciences (AHS) is an internationally refereed journal in the field of health sciences with vast research contributions in the world and Africa region. Objective: The study aimed to document the scientific production and explore the AHS research bibliometric characteristics since its first issue. Methods: A comprehensive retrospective bibliometric analysis was performed on AHS published documents indexed in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus since the journal's first issue. The analysis was done using SPSS v. 22.0, Bibliometrix Package in R, and VOSviewer v.1.6.15. Results: A total of 1649 and 1879 documents indexed in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus were retrieved. The annual number of publications showed a significant increase in both databases. The most contributing countries (in WoS vs. Scopus) were; Nigeria (n = 393 vs. 276), Uganda (215 vs. 220) and South Africa (143 vs. 101).The most productive authors were "Tumwine JK", "Mayanja-Kizza H", and "Ocama P". Makerere University, The University of Ibadan, and University of Nigeria were the most contributive institutions. International agencies mainly from the USA were the main funders of AHS documents. Analysis of keywords revealed the dominance of research topics with keywords such as HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Obesity, Hypertension, risk factors, infection, mortality, amongst others. Conclusions: This analysis has revealed the progress in the development and growth of scientific research from AHS. Moreover, top-cited documents-analysis has reflected its focus on health issues relevant to Africa. This analysis would help in evidence-based descriptions of AHS research output.

Mapping global trends in adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell research: A bibliometric analysis using scopus database.

Background and objective: Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AdMSC) are multipotent adult mesenchymal cells isolated and cultured from the stromal vascular fraction derived from adipose tissue. The present study was conducted to analyze the global trends in AdMSC research using bibliometric and visual analysis tools. Methods: The literature search was done on February 13, 2022, using appropriate keywords and inclusion-exclusion criteria from the Scopus database. The extracted data were retrospectively analyzed and visualized using Bibliometrics and R packages and VOSviewer. Results: Preliminary analysis identified 1569 documents from the Scopus database published between 2005 and 2021. The average citations received per document was 26.51, whereas the average citations per year per document was 3.347. In addition, the selected documents had an h-index value of 90. China was the most productive country, whereas Seoul National University (South Korea) was identified as the most productive institute/university in AdMSC research. In addition, the National Natural Science Foundation of China funded the most research studies in AdMSC research. Conclusion: The findings from this study indicate a progressive increase in interest among the research community towards AdMSC, suggesting promising prospects in the coming years.

Tracking the progress in COVID-19 and vaccine safety research - a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of publications indexed in Scopus database.

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency is one of the worse disease outbreaks in the history of infectious disease. The consequence has resulted in over 4 million deaths globally. Therefore, a more in-depth understanding of the dynamics of the disease, vaccine development, and safety has become crucial for the disease eradication. OBJECTIVE: The study adopted bibliometric analysis to identify the global contribution in COVID-19 and Vaccine Safety and analyzed the current status, development, and research hotspots to reference for future research directions. METHODS: Studies published between January 1, 2019 and July 11, 2021 were retrieved from the Scopus database. Data analysis and visualization were conducted using VOSviewer ver 1.6.6, Bibliometrix app. (Using R). RESULTS: A total of 1827 publications with 12.14 average citations per document were identified. These publications were published in 796 journals by 10,243 authors (with 5.61 authors per document) from 80 countries/regions. About 33.75% of the researches were from the developed countries. The USA, China, and India were top contributors for scientific research on COVID-19 and vaccine safety. The "Vaccine" is the most productive journal with 58 articles. Li Y, NA NA, and Liu X were the top three prolific authors. Furthermore, "Human," "Coronavirus disease 2019," and "Drug safety," were the most common frontier topics. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis highlights the characteristics of the most influential articles on COVID-19 related to vaccine safety. The findings provided valuable insight into the scientific research progress in this domain and suggest scaling-up research and information dissemination on COVID-19 and vaccine safety.

Mapping the global research output on Ebola vaccine from research indexed in web of science and scopus: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis.

Introduction: The Ebola Virus outbreak in Africa is believed to be one of the deadliest viral infections that causes severe hemorrhagic fever in human and nonhuman primates, which has resulted in increased mortality rates in the affected African countries. Thus, the current study mapped and quantified global research output and trends in the EBOV vaccine publications via a bibliometric analysis.Methods: Publications about the Ebola virus vaccine were extracted from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. HistCite, Bibliometrix, an R package, and VOSviewer.Var1.6.6 were used for data mapping and analysis.Results: A total of 541 (WoS) and 511 (Scopus) documents were included, with a cumulation of 24,611 citations in both databases. These documents were published in 141 journals in the Wos and 185 in Scopus. The USA was the most productive country with 206 (38.08%) publications in the Wos. Although the top-cited authors are from the USA, the United Kingdom, and Canada, only one author from Africa "Samai M" from the University of Sierra Leone contributed 13 publications. Meanwhile, the Journal of Infectious Diseases was the most productive (45, 8.32%) in this field.Conclusion: The study provides insight for researchers and health policy on the trends and progress of the EBOV vaccine research and development, focusing on the hot topics, research collaboration, and research dearth that requires urgent redress to fast-track an all-inclusive EBOV vaccine development.

Bibliometric analysis of global scientific literature on effects of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.

The study provides a comprehensive analysis of trends of the global scientific research on the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental health from the first published literature up to June 27, 2021. Relevant documents were searched using mesh terms based on the query of two searches, "COVID-19 & Mental Health" scenarios joined by the Boolean operator "AND" to retrieve relevant literature using the Web of Science (WOS) database. Bibliometric indicators were analyzed using HistCite, Bibliometrix, an R package, and VOSviewer.Var1.6.6. A total of 5449 publications with an h-index of 97 were retrieved from the database. Overall, articles retrieved were written by 24123 authors, published in 1224 journals, 132 countries represented, and 10.01 average citations per document. Kings College London led the list of contributing institutions with 76 articles. The United States Department of Human Health Services, the National Institutes of Health, the USA, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China was the top funding agencies that enhanced research on mental health and supported more than 180 articles. USA contributed the most significant proportion 1157 (21.23 %) of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental health publication closely followed by China in the number of publications 741(13.60 %). The study provides insight into the global research perspective for the scientific progress on the COVID-19 Pandemic public health emergency and the mental health issues, thus significantly impacting and supporting intervention towards improving people's mental health post-COVID-19 outbreak.

The epidemiology, diagnosis and management of scrub typhus disease in China.

Thirty-nine years ago, scrub typhus (ST), a disease, was not among the China's notifiable diseases. However, ST has reemerged to become a growing public health issue in the southwest part of China. The major factors contributing to an increased incidence and prevalence of this disease include rapid globalization, urbanization, expansion of humans into previously uninhabited areas, and climate change. The clinical manifestation of ST also consists of high fever, headache, weakness, myalgia, rash, and an eschar. In severe cases, complications (e.g. multi-organ failure, jaundice, acute renal failure, pneumonitis, myocarditis, and even death) can occur. The diagnosis of ST is mainly based on serological identification by indirect immunofluorescence assay and other molecular methods. Furthermore, several groups of antibiotics (e.g. tetracycline, chloramphenicol, macrolides, and rifampicin) are currently effective in treating this disease. This fact suggests the need for robust early diagnostic techniques, increased surveillance, and prompt treatment, and develop future vaccine.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Scientific Research on Scrub Typhus.

OBJECTIVE: The rise of zoonotic diseases has become a global health issue around the world. The present study is aimed at assessing the global status and the trends in scrub typhus (ST) research. METHODS: Publications related to ST studies from 1945 to 21st July 2020 were retrieved from the Scopus database. The search for the ST literature was conducted using the entry terms of the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) database. Full research articles and reviews were included in the analysis, and no limitation to the language was specified. Key bibliometric indicator analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel, Bibliometrix (an R package), GraphPad Prism 5, and VOSviewer (version 1.6.6). RESULTS: A total of 1567 publications were retrieved. The results revealed a significant increase in the number of ST publications over time. The documents received an average of 11.22 citations per document. Mahidol University in Thailand (258, 16.46%) was the most productive institution, while the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene published the most ST articles (88, 5.62%). Korea (195, 12.44%) was the most productive country, followed by India (178, 11.36%) and China (106, 6.76%). Richards AL was the most productive author with 36 articles. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings provide useful insights into the global efforts and works related to the progress of ST research, which can be used to identify future research areas, such as vaccine development.

Association Between Acute Inflammatory Cells and Mutation in ICAM-1 Gene With Injury Severity and Outcome Among Traumatic Cerebral Hemorrhagic Contusion.

BACKGROUND: Acute inflammation in the brain after trauma is mediated by acute inflammatory cells (neutrophils) that contributes to ischemic brain damage, neurological deterioration, and poor outcome. Migration of neutrophils to brain is mediated by intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). The aim was to determine an association between neutrophils counts, ICAM-1 level and mutation in ICAM-1 gene with injury severity and patient's outcome. METHODS: Cross-sectional study was conducted for ninety Sudanese patients presented with traumatic cerebral hemorrhagic contusion to the National Center for Neurological Sciences, Khartoum, Sudan from December 2015 to January 2018. Non-Sudanese patients, and hemorrhagic contusion associated with other type of brain bleeding were excluded in this study. Moreover, 90 apparently healthy individuals were participated as control. RESULTS: Most patients were males (93.3%), their ages ranged from 25 to 44 years, 11.1% of the patients had severe brain injury, 22.2% had brain edema and the mortality rate was 8.9%. Circulatory levels of leukocytes, neutrophil and ICAM-1 among patients who sustained trauma were significantly elevated compared with controls (p = 0.000). The high level of leukocytes and neutrophils counts were significantly associated with ICAM-1pg/mL circulatory level. High levels of leukocytes, neutrophils, and ICAM-1 were documented in severe brain injuries, whereas. high level of ICAM-1 was observed among patients admitted with brain edema. Leukocytes and neutrophils counts were significantly associated with patient outcome. High level of ICAM-1 (304.88 pg/mL) was observed among patients with poor outcome compared to survivals (263.93 pg/mL). The highest circulatory level of ICAM-1 (280.75 pg/mL) was observed among patient having adenine-adenine (AA) mutant homozygous alleles, followed by (272 pg/mL) for guanine-guanine (GG) homozygous alleles, then (245.12 pg/mL) for guanine-adenine (GA) heterozygous alleles. CONCLUSIONS: Mutation in ICAM-1 gene and increased levels of leukocytes, neutrophils and ICAM-1 constitutes important markers for injury severity and patient's outcome.

The Significance of Mutation in IL-1ß Gene and Circulatory Level for Prediction of Trauma Severity and Outcome in Traumatic Cerebral Hemorrhagic Contusion.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) is a leading cause of death, disability, and resources consumption. Cerebral hemorrhagic contusions are primary brain lesion and often one of the most visible lesions following TBIs. Interleukin-one beta (IL-1 ß) is pro-inflammatory cytokines it is circulatory level and gene have been implicated in secondary brain injury and worse outcome following TBIs. This study is to determine the significance role of IL-1 ß gene polymorphism (-511C/T) and circulatory level for prediction trauma severity and outcome in traumatic cerebral hemorrhagic contusion. METHODS: The study population includes 90 Sudanese patients with traumatic cerebral hemorrhagic and 90 apparently healthy individuals as control. IL-1ß serum concentration was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and IL-1ß gene was genotyped using restriction fragment length polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Significant elevation of IL-1ß level was seen among trauma patients compared to control (p-value < 0.001). Although there was no significant association between IL-1ß level with trauma severity or death; IL-1ß level was higher in severe brain injures compared with moderate and mild one, and the mean concentration of IL-1ß was high (18.75 pg/mL) among patient developed poor outcome compared to survivals (15.17 pg/mL). T recessive allele of IL-1 ß gene was detected in 13.3% of participant. The highest circulatory level of IL-1ß (17.8 pg/mL) was observed among patients with TT homozygous alleles. IL-1 ß gene polymorphism was not associated with trauma severity and death. CONCLUSIONS: IL-1ß circulatory level was varied according to trauma severity and highly levels were seen among patients developed unfavorable outcome. IL-1ß -511C/T gene was not associated with trauma severity and outcome.

Association of Copy Number Variation at Intron 3 of HMGA2 With Navel Length in Bos indicus.

Navel injuries caused by friction against the pasture can promote infection, reproductive problems and costly treatments in beef cattle raised in extensive systems. A haplotype-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed for visual scores of navel length at yearling in Nellore cattle (Bos indicus) using data from 2,016 animals and 503,088 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The strongest signal (p = 1.01 × 10-9) was found on chromosome 5 spanning positions 47.9-48.2 Mbp. This region contains introns 3 and 4 and exons 4 and 5 of the high mobility group AT-hook 2 gene (HMGA2). Further inspection of the region with whole genome sequence data of 21 Nellore bulls revealed correlations between counts of the significant haplotype and copy number gains of a ∼6.2 kbp segment of intron 3 of HMGA2. Analysis of genome sequences from five African B. indicus and four European Bos taurus breeds revealed that the copy number variant (CNV) is indicine-specific. This intronic CNV was then validated through quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) using Angus animals as copy neutral controls. Importantly, the CNV was not detectable by means of conventional SNP-based GWAS or SNP probe intensity analyses. Given that HMGA2 affects the expression of the insulin-like growth factor 2 gene (IGF2) together with the pleomorphic adenoma gene 1 (PLAG1), and that the latter has been repeatedly shown to be associated with quantitative traits of economic importance in cattle, these findings highlight the emerging role of variants impacting the insulin-like growth factor pathway to cattle breeding.

Genome-Wide Variation, Candidate Regions and Genes Associated With Fat Deposition and Tail Morphology in Ethiopian Indigenous Sheep.

Variations in body weight and in the distribution of body fat are associated with feed availability, thermoregulation, and energy reserve. Ethiopia is characterized by distinct agro-ecological and human ethnic farmer diversity of ancient origin, which have impacted on the variation of its indigenous livestock. Here, we investigate autosomal genome-wide profiles of 11 Ethiopian indigenous sheep populations using the Illumina Ovine 50 K SNP BeadChip assay. Sheep from the Caribbean, Europe, Middle East, China, and western, northern and southern Africa were included to address globally, the genetic variation and history of Ethiopian populations. Population relationship and structure analysis separated Ethiopian indigenous fat-tail sheep from their North African and Middle Eastern counterparts. It indicates two main genetic backgrounds and supports two distinct genetic histories for African fat-tail sheep. Within Ethiopian sheep, our results show that the short fat-tail sheep do not represent a monophyletic group. Four genetic backgrounds are present in Ethiopian indigenous sheep but at different proportions among the fat-rump and the long fat-tail sheep from western and southern Ethiopia. The Ethiopian fat-rump sheep share a genetic background with Sudanese thin-tail sheep. Genome-wide selection signature analysis identified eight putative candidate regions spanning genes influencing growth traits and fat deposition (NPR2, HINT2, SPAG8, INSR), development of limbs and skeleton, and tail formation (ALX4, HOXB13, BMP4), embryonic development of tendons, bones and cartilages (EYA2, SULF2), regulation of body temperature (TRPM8), body weight and height variation (DIS3L2), control of lipogenesis and intracellular transport of long-chain fatty acids (FABP3), the occurrence and morphology of horns (RXFP2), and response to heat stress (DNAJC18). Our findings suggest that Ethiopian fat-tail sheep represent a uniquely admixed but distinct genepool that presents an important resource for understanding the genetic control of skeletal growth, fat metabolism and associated physiological processes.

Epidemiology of Measles Cases in South Darfur State, Sudan, 2011-2015.

Case-based surveillance measles data was defined according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. A total of 511 measles cases were studied from 2011 to 2015 in Southern Darfur State, Sudan and 58.1% of cases were confirmed from Nyala city. About 43.4% of cases were males, 56.6% of cases were female, and 47.7% were children under five years old. Similarity, within February to June, the cases increased by 8.0% in children vaccinated through measles campaign, and 5.3% in children that used child vaccination card and 78.7% in unvaccinated one. The epidemiologically linked (EPI-Linked) measles cases declined from 2011 to 2015; consequently, Measles still remain to be a significant challenge in south Darfur state, Sudan.

The molecular adjuvant mC3d enhances the immunogenicity of FimA from type I fimbriae of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis.

BACKGROUND: The fimbriae of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis are used for colonization and invasion into host cells, and have drawn considerable interest because fimbriae can serve as potential immunogens against many pathogenic bacteria that colonize on epithelial surfaces. The purpose of the study is to use a molecular adjuvant, C3d, to enhance the immunogenicity of FimA proteins against Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis. METHODS: FimA of type I fimbriae from Salmonella enteritidis and FimA with one copy of mC3d, two copies of mC3d2 and three copies of mC3d3 were cloned into the expression vector pCold-TF. Soluble fusion proteins of FimA with different copy of mC3d were induced by IPTG and expressed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that the recombinant proteins from pCold-TF-fimA, TF-fimA-mC3d, TF-fimA-mC3d2, TF-fimA-mC3d3 were 70 kDa, 100 kDa, 130 kDa and 160 kDa, respectively. The fusion protein was recognized by rabbit anti-fimbriae polyclonal antibodies, and then visualized by goat anti-rabbit polyclonal antibodies with a chrome appearance by enzyme-subtract interaction. The recombinant proteins were purified by Ni-TED (tris-carboxymethyl ethylene diamine), immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC). Balb/c mice were subcutaneously immunized with the purified proteins and the immune response was monitored by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for FimA-specific antibody. The immunized mice were challenged with a 10-fold LD50 dose (i.e., 100 CFU) of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis standard strain (SD-2) 1 week after the second immunization. RESULTS: The immunized mice with the fusion proteins FimA-mC3d2 and FimA-mC3d3 had increased levels of ELISA titer of antibody that were 2 and 4 logs, respectively, more immunogenic than the TF-FimA protein alone. The challenge results showed that immune protection rate in the mice immunized with 10 µg of FimA, FimA-mC3d2, and FimA-mC3d3 were 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. CONCLUSION: We conclude that mC3d can be expressed in a prokaryotic vector and enhance the immune response of the recombinant protein. FimA-mC3d3 is potentially a subunit vaccine against S. enterica serovar Enteritidis infection.