The evolution of isothermal amplification technology: A bibliometric study (2013–2022)

Abstract

Background: Isothermal amplification is a nucleic acid amplification technology (NAAT) that has contributed significantly to molecular diagnostics. The combination of NAAT with a suitable detection platform has improved sensitivity and specificity and enabled rapid disease diagnosis. A total of 5388 articles relating to isothermal amplification technology published from 2013 to 2022 were identified in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database and subsequently analyzed with CiteSpace 5.7.R1 software.

Results: The number of published articles on isothermal amplification technology steadily increased between 2013 and 2022. The disciplines included Chemistry, Science Technology Other Topics, Biotechnology Applied Microbiology, Microbiology, and Biochemistry Molecular Biology. The countries with the highest number of published articles were China, the United States, and Japan while the institutions with the highest number of published articles were the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Mahidol University. The high-frequency keywords included rapid detection, sensitivity, pathogen, Escherichia coli, probe, primer, and expression. Over recent years, most research studies concerning isothermal amplification focused on its advantages, improvements, and applications. RCA, LAMP, RPA, and Cas technologies appeared sequentially from 2013 onward. The keyword “LAMP” exhibited the highest frequency (1222 times).

Conclusions: Our study described the research trends and the status of isothermal amplification technology over the past decade, providing guidance for future research in this field.