Hot papers in Alzheimer's disease research

Over the past 20 years, the number of science and social sciences articles published in the journals indexed by Thomson Reuters for its Web of Science database doubled, from 900,000 to 1.8 million. In the same period, papers dealing with Alzheimer’s disease more than quadrupled in number, from about 2,200 in 1990 to 8,900 in 2009. Even so, one may wonder if research on this disease is being pursued and funded as much as it should be considering other numbers that characterise the condition: as of 2010, 36 million people worldwide suffer with dementia of which Alzheimer’s disease is a major part; $600 billion a year is spent in caring for these patients; and this figure amounts to some 1 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (see World Alzheimer’s Report 2010, published by Alzheimer’s Disease International). Earlier this year, the Health Economics Research Centre of the University of Oxford, in a study prepared for the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, reported that in the UK, cancer research receives 12 times more funding than dementia research; at the same time, the costs of dementia in the country are twice that for cancer care and treatment (see the trust’s Dementia 2010 report).

Thomson Reuters identified the papers listed above as current hot papers in Alzheimer’s disease research. Hot papers are two years old or younger and have been cited at a high rate (top 0.1 per cent), considering their field and time of publication (analysed in bimonthly publication windows). The oldest article in the group appeared in September 2008 and the newest ones were published in October 2009. These most recent two, ranking first and second by total citations, report three new susceptibility loci (CLU, PICALM, CR1) for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Two other papers, ranked sixth and seventh, investigate the use of biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid to detect incipient Alzheimer’s disease in persons with mild cognitive impairment. This topic is a particularly active area in Alzheimer’s disease research, demonstrated by the publication of more than 300 reports so far in 2010.

For more information on Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators, see http://science.thomsonreuters.com/products/esi