A bibliometric analysis of HIV-1 drug-resistant minority variants from 1999 to 2024.

Background: The rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy has become an international trend, necessitating lifelong medication for all HIV patients. Sanger sequencing, as the gold standard for clinically detecting HIV drug resistance, often fails to detect mutations comprising less than 20% of the total viral population. With the advancement of detection technologies, HIV-1 drug-resistant minority variants have garnered increasing attention. Few studies have analyzed the hotspots and trends in this field, which bibliometrics can effectively address.

Methods: Publications related to HIV-1 DRMinVs from 1999 to 2024 were searched on the Web of Science Core Collection database. Visual knowledge maps and bibliometric analyses were generated using VOSviewer and Bibliometrix.

Results: In total, 289 publications concerning HIV-1 drug-resistant minority variants were identified from 1999 to 2024, demonstrating a steady increase in publication output over the years. Although developed countries, led by the United States, are the main contributors, 9.57% and 2.48% of the research from the top five publishing countries focus on populations in Africa and other developing countries, respectively. Most contributing institutions are universities and public health organizations, with the University of Washington having the highest publication output. The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy holds the highest prominence among journals in this domain. The main hotspots include "drug classes," "drug resistance surveillance," "mother-to-child transmission," "treatment outcomes," and "targets of HIV-1 drug resistance testing," And we found several noteworthy shifts in research trends in HIV-1 drug-resistant minority variants studies, including changes in drug resistance testing technologies, the primary study population, and drug classes.

Conclusions: This is the first bibliometric analysis of publications related to HIV-1 DRMinVs from 1999 to 2024. We analyzed the key research contributions across countries, institutions and journals. Based on keyword co-occurrence and cluster analysis, we identified several noteworthy shifts in research trends in HIV-1 DRMinVs studies, including changes in drug resistance testing technologies, the primary study population, and drug classes.