Molecular neuroscience at its "high": bibliometric analysis of the most cited papers on endocannabinoid system, cannabis and cannabinoids

Attenuation of cannabis withdrawal symptoms by Prosopis farcta extract, its luteolin and melatonin in mice: Involvement of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and dopamine

The aim of this study was the identification of luteolin in Prosopis farcta extract (PFE) and melatonin to evaluate its effect on THC withdrawal syndrome in mice. Luteolin was identified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPCL). Signs of toxicity of mice in PFE and luteolin were monitored for LD50 calculation. The behavioral symptoms of THC withdrawal (stereotypies, ambulation, and inactivity time) induced by the rimonabant challenge were illustrated in THC-dependent mice receiving PFE, luteolin, and melatonin. The expression of mature BDNF (mBDNF) was evaluated by Western blot analysis. The dopamine concentrations were measured using HPLC. PFE and luteolin LD50 were 650 and 220 mg/kg, respectively. PFE (300 mg/kg), all doses of luteolin, and melatonin increased significantly the mBDNF expression and decreased the dopamine concentration. The findings suggest that PFE, luteolin, and melatonin are mighty in reducing the signs of THC withdrawal. It seems these effects were due to a decrease in dopamine concentration level and an increase in mBDNF protein expression in mice brains.

Bibliometric Analysis of Cannabis sativa Research: Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions

Introduction: The use of medical Cannabis remains unregulated in several countries due to the scarcity of clinical studies with high scientific evidence that establish safety and efficacy of Cannabis products. This study aimed to comprehensively analyze how knowledge has been created in this field, as well as perform a bibliographic mapping to identify knowledge gaps, and investigate key authors and journals that have significantly contributed to advancing our understanding of Cannabis. Method: The study protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Review (CRD42020223084). A systematic search was conducted in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Lilacs, Google Scholar, PubMed, SciELO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. The bibliographic analysis and mapping were registered using the VOSviewer, Sci2tool, CiteSpace, and PoP software. Results: The systematic search identified 27,597 records, with 17,020 duplicates, resulting in a total of 10,577 articles included. The authors who published the most were Marilyn Ann Huestis (n=108) and Sagnik Bhattacharyya (n=71), while Elisaldo A. Carlini and Raphael Mechoulam published 8 and 22 articles, respectively. The journals Drug and Alcohol Dependence (n=297), Psychopharmacology (n=159) and Addictive Behaviors (n=150) were the ones that published the most on Cannabis. The journals suggest that the articles are correlated with the adverse and toxicological effects of recreational Cannabis use; however, most articles focus on medical Cannabis. The peak of publications was in 2021 (n=1,481). The countries that published the most were the United States (n=9,735), while Brazil occupied the 11th position (n=422). Most publications were carried out in "Pharmacology and Pharmacy" (11.31%), followed by "Psychiatry" (7.66%) and "Medicine" (5.80%). The areas of "Neurosciences" (1.59%), "Biochemistry," "Genetics," and "Molecular Biology" (0.79%) were little explored. Conclusion: This study captured the characteristics of publications about Cannabis and clinical studies in the scientific literature, yielding >10,000 articles, representing a large literature review, to date. Therefore, the most productive countries included the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, while the most productive authors were Marilyn Ann Huestis and Sagnik Bhattacharyya, with a peak of publications in 2021. Finally, the most chosen journals were Drug and Alcohol Dependence and Psychopharmacology.

A bibliometric analysis of the cannabis and cannabinoid research literature

Background

Cannabis refers to a plant in the family Cannabaceae, which has been used medically, recreationally, and industrially. The last two decades, in particular, have seen a large increase in the volume of literature on this topic. The present bibliometric analysis aims to capture the characteristics of scholarly journal publications on the topic of cannabis and cannabinoid research.

Methods

Searches were run on the Scopus database on April 02, 2021, as follows “(TITLE (cannabi* OR hashish OR marijuana OR marihuana)) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( DOCTYPE,"ar" ) OR LIMIT-TO ( DOCTYPE,"re" ) )”. Results were exported on the same day to prevent discrepancies between daily database updates. Only “article” and “review” publication types were included; no further search limits were applied. The “article” publication type includes publications featuring original research, whereas “review” includes reviews and conference papers. The following data were collected: number of publications (in total and per year), authors, and journals; open access status; publications per journal; journals publishing the highest volume of literature and their impact factors, language of publication; document type; publication country; author affiliations; funding sponsors; most highly cited publications; and most highly published authors. Trends in this subset of publications were identified and presented. Bibliometric networks were constructed using the software tool VOSviewer.

Results

A total of 29 802 publications (10 214 open access), published by 65 109 authors, were published in 5474 journals from 1829 to 2021. The greatest number of publications was published over the last 20 years. The journal that published the largest number of publications was Drug and Alcohol Dependence (n = 705). The most productive countries included the USA (n = 12 420), the UK (n = 2236), and Canada (n = 2062); many of the most common institutional affiliations and funding sponsors originated from these countries.

Conclusions

The number of publications published on the topic of cannabis follows an upward trend. Over the past 20 years, the volume of cannabis research has grown steeply, which can be attributed to a large amount of funding dedicated to researching this topic. Future research should continue to investigate changes in the publication characteristics of emerging research, as the volume of publications on this topic is expected to rapidly grow.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42238-022-00133-0.

Bibliometric Study on the Highly Cited Papers and Correlation Between Citation Frequency and Download Frequency in Chinese Medicine Journals

The purpose of this paper is to retrieve and study the highly cited papers as well as the correlation between the citation frequency and the download frequency of the 20 traditional Chinese medicine journals in China, in order to provide the guidance for improving the influence and academic quality of these journals.

Bibliometric analyses were conducted on 1103 papers of 20 traditional Chinese medicine journals from 2011 to 2020 by retrieving for the China Academic Journal Network Publishing Database (CAJD) in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze the correlation between the citation frequency and the download frequency via conducting regression fitting and establishing the mathematical models.

The results showed that the total citations of the 1103 papers were 93051 times and the average citations were 84.36 times per paper. The total downloads of the 1103 papers were 2058442 times, and the average downloads were 1866.22 times per paper. China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica ranked first according to the number of papers, total citations and total downloads. The citations of Journal of Chinese Medicinal Materials ranked first based on the number of citations per paper. One of Li’s paper had been cited the most (983 times). There were 629 (57.03%) papers whose first author was from universities. The scopes of the first authors were distributed in 29 regions and 2 special administrative regions (Macao, Hong Kong) in China. The authors from Beijing published 283 (25.66%) papers, ranking number one. The number of papers supported by funds was 882 (79.96%). The research results of correlation showed that the citation frequency and the download frequency of the highly cited papers had a highly positive correlation from both journal and paper level for whether the sample data of journals was normally distributed or nonnormally distributed. The correlation coefficients of the 20 journals at journal level and that at paper level were 0.9765 and 0.6677, respectively. The correlation was better at journal level than that at paper level, while the optimal regression fitting was all cubic polynomial. Among the 1103 papers, there were 684 (62.01%) research papers and 419 (37.99%) review papers. The main citation period of the top 15 papers was from the 2nd year to the 6th year after publication, accounting for 78.39%.

Papers on clinical therapeutics research, papers on the pharmacological effects and its mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine, and papers on traditional Chinese medicine and natural medicine were the main source of the highly cited papers of the traditional Chinese medicine journals. Editors of the journals should focus on the above-mentioned research areas to select manuscripts for exploiting the excellent sources extensively, while paying attention to review papers, focusing on national major or key projects, paying attention to network spreading, stabilizing authors with quality services, in order to improve the influence and the academic quality of journals.

Cannabinoid Receptors: An Update on Cell Signaling, Pathophysiological Roles and Therapeutic Opportunities in Neurological, Cardiovascular, and Inflammatory Diseases

The identification of the human cannabinoid receptors and their roles in health and disease, has been one of the most significant biochemical and pharmacological advancements to have occurred in the past few decades. In spite of the major strides made in furthering endocannabinoid research, therapeutic exploitation of the endocannabinoid system has often been a challenging task. An impaired endocannabinoid tone often manifests as changes in expression and/or functions of type 1 and/or type 2 cannabinoid receptors. It becomes important to understand how alterations in cannabinoid receptor cellular signaling can lead to disruptions in major physiological and biological functions, as they are often associated with the pathogenesis of several neurological, cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammatory diseases. This review focusses mostly on the pathophysiological roles of type 1 and type 2 cannabinoid receptors, and it attempts to integrate both cellular and physiological functions of the cannabinoid receptors. Apart from an updated review of pre-clinical and clinical studies, the adequacy/inadequacy of cannabinoid-based therapeutics in various pathological conditions is also highlighted. Finally, alternative strategies to modulate endocannabinoid tone, and future directions are also emphasized.

Neurotensins and their therapeutic potential: research field study

The natural tridecapeptide neurotensin has been emerged as a promising therapeutic scaffold for the treatment of neurological diseases and cancer. In this work, we aimed to identify the top 100 most cited original research papers as well as recent key studies related to neurotensins. The Web of Science Core Collection database was searched and the retrieved research articles were analyzed by using the VOSviewer software. The most cited original articles were published between 1973 and 2013. The top-cited article was by Carraway and Leeman reporting the discovery of neurotensin in 1973. The highly cited terms were associated with hypotension and angiotensin-converting-enzyme. The conducted analysis reveals the therapeutic potentials of neurotensin, and further impactful research toward its clinical development is warrantied.