Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis of P-Tau in Alzheimer's Disease: Trends and Emerging Research Priorities (1991–2024)

Introduction: As a major contributor to dementia burden worldwide, Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis involves critical phosphorylated tau (p-tau) abnormalities. This research employed bibliometric methods to systematically evaluate worldwide scientific trends, emerging foci, and international collaboration patterns regarding p-tau in AD research. Methods: Relevant publications spanning 1991-2024 from the Web of Science Core Collection were extracted. Bibliometric analysis was performed using R package “Bibliometrix” (v4.3.3), CiteSpace (v6.1.R2) and VOSviewer (v1.6.20). Results: A total of 2,685 publications were included. China led in publication volume (612, 22.8%), followed by the USA (586, 21.8%) and Sweden (212, 7.9%). University of London was the most productive institution (603 publications). Blennow Kaj stood out with publications and citations of 270 and 18,093. The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurology were the top-ranked journal, with the highest publications (321) and citations (6,446), respectively. Cluster analysis revealed four major clusters, including mechanisms underlying p-tau in AD, p-tau as biomarker in AD, diagnosis of AD using p-tau, and consensus in AD. Keyword burst analysis emphasized recent terms such as “neurofilament light”, “dysfunction”, “performance” and “biomarker”. Conclusion: This study systematically analyzed the researches on p-tau in AD. Research hotspots have evolved from the early focus on pathological features to the exploration of biomarkers-based diagnosis. Recently, the comprehensive assessment AD is emphasized, suggesting that future studies should pay more attention to regulatory mechanism of abnormal p-tau for identification of therapeutic targets and overcome the challenges of p-tau as biomarkers during clinical diagnosis.