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DLD is a key gene involved in “cuproptosis,” but its roles in tumor progression and immunity remain unclear. Exploring the potential mechanisms and biological roles of DLD may provide new insights for therapeutic strategies for tumors. In the present study, we analyzed the role of DLD in a variety of tumors by using several bioinformatic tools. The results showed that compared with normal tissues, tumor tissues representing multiple cancers showed significant differential expression of DLD. High DLD expression was associated with a good prognosis in BRCA, KICH, and LUAD. Conversely, high expression levels of DLD were detrimental to patient prognosis in many other tumors, such as COAD, KIRC, and KIRP. In addition, the associations of DLD with infiltrating immune cells, genetic alterations and methylation levels across cancers were assessed. Aberrant expression of DLD was positively correlated with most infiltrating immune cells, especially neutrophils. The DLD methylation level was significantly decreased in COAD, LIHC, and LUSC but significantly increased in BRCA. DLD had the highest mutation rate (6.04%) in ESCA. In LUSC, patients with genetic alterations in DLD showed a poorer prognosis. At the single-cell level, the roles of DLD in regulating cancer-associated biological functions, such as metastasis, inflammation, and differentiation, were explored. Afterward, we further investigated whether several disease-associated genes could be correlated with DLD. GO enrichment analysis indicated that DLD-related genes were mainly associated with mitochondria-related cellular components, aerobic respiration and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Finally, the correlations between DLD expression and immunomodulatory genes, immune checkpoints, and sensitivity to some antitumor drugs were investigated. It is worth noting that DLD expression was positively correlated with immune checkpoint genes and immunomodulatory genes in most cancers. In conclusion, this study comprehensively analyzed the differential expression, prognostic value and immune cell infiltration-related function of DLD across cancers. Our results suggest that DLD has great potential to serve as a candidate marker for pancancer prognosis and immunotherapy and may provide a new direction for cancer treatment development.

Background: Ultrasound-triggered sonodynamic therapy (SDT), as a non-invasive approach, has attracted considerable attention in a wide variety of malignant tumors and other diseases. Over the past 2 decades, the number of scientific publications on SDT has increased rapidly. However, there is still a lack of one comprehensive report that summarizes the global research trends and knowledge landscapes in the field of SDT in detail. Thus, we performed a bibliometric analysis on SDT from 2000 to 2021 to track the current hotspots and highlight future directions.Methods: We collected publications on SDT research from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The annual number of publications and citations, major contributors, popular journals, international collaborations, co-cited references and co-occurrence keywords were analyzed and visualized with CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and R-bibliometrix.Results: A total of 701 publications were included. The annual publication output increased from 5 in 2000 to 175 in 2021, and the average growth rate was 18.4%. China was the most productive country with 463 documents (66.05%), and Harbin Medical University was the most prolific institution (N = 73). Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology published the most papers related to SDT. Materials Science, and Chemistry were the research areas receiving the most interest. All the keywords were divided into four different clusters including studies on mechanisms, studies on drug delivery and nanoparticles, studies on cancer therapy, as well as studies on ultrasound and sonosensitizers. In addition to nanomaterials-related studies including nanoparticles, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, nanosheets, liposomes, microbubble and TiO2 nanoparticle, the following research directions such as immunogenic cell death, metal-organic framework, photothermal therapy, hypoxia, tumor microenvironment, chemodynamic therapy, combination therapy, tumor resistance, intensity focused ultrasound, drug delivery, and Staphylococcus aureus also deserve further attention and may continue to explode in the future.Conclusion: SDT has a bright future in the field of cancer treatment, and nanomaterials have increasingly influenced the SDT field with the development of nano-technology. Overall, this comprehensive bibliometric study was the first attempt to analyze the field of SDT, which could provide valuable references for later researchers to better understand the global research trends, hotspots and frontiers in this domain.

A growing body of research has illuminated that photodynamic therapy (PDT) serves as an important therapeutic strategy in oncology and has become a hot topic in recent years. Although numerous papers related to cancer PDT (CPDT) have been published, no bibliometric studies have been conducted to summarize the research landscape, and highlight the research trends and hotspots in this field. This study collected 5,804 records on CPDT published between 2000 and 2021 from Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric analysis and visualization were conducted using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and one online platform. The annual publication and citation results revealed significant increasing trends over the past 22 years. China and the United States, contributing 56.24% of the total publications, were the main driving force in this field. Chinese Academy of Sciences was the most prolific institution. Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy and Photochemistry and Photobiology were the most productive and most co-cited journals, respectively. All keywords were categorized into four clusters including studies on nanomaterial technology, clinical applications, mechanism, and photosensitizers. “nanotech-based PDT” and “enhanced PDT” were current research hotspots. In addition to several nano-related topics such as “nanosphere,” “nanoparticle,” “nanomaterial,” “nanoplatform,” “nanomedicine” and “gold nanoparticle,” the following topics including “photothermal therapy,” “metal organic framework,” “checkpoint blockade,” “tumor microenvironment,” “prodrug” also deserve further attention in the near future.