Epithelial Sodium Channel in the Respiratory System: A Bibliometric Review of Recent Studies

Inhibiting epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) provides clinical benefit in cystic fibrosis treatment, whereas activated alveolar ENaC attenuates acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome. However, seldom bibliometric analysis of respiratory ENaC systematically evaluates hotspots and trends in ion transport, as well as providing few overviews for researchers. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of respiratory ENaC over the past 40 years, identifying the research frontier and topic evolution. Searching the literature in Science Citation Index Expanded from Web of Science (WOS) and PubMed, a total of 1634 publications in 409 journals, authored by 5457 researchers from 60 countries/regions, were analyzed by CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and sciMAT software. The earliest highly cited article, titled ‘Rescue of CF airway epithelial cell function in vitro by a CFTR potentiator, VX-770’, had accumulated 1011 citations. The most prolific author, country, and journal were MA Mall, USA, and Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol, respectively. In the most recent phase of annual focus, research areas could be clustered by immunology, cell biology, pharmacology and pharmacy, biotechnology and applied microbiology, and physiology. In summary, this bibliometric research reveals that respiratory ENaC is not only responsible for alveolar fluid clearance, but has converted into a broader modulator in immune-inflammatory responses.