# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Pediatric health and respiratory diseases Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/pediatric-health-and-respiratory-diseases/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Pediatric health and respiratory diseases research in the Class of 2026?

Respiratory syncytial virus, CFTR modulator therapy, and post-pandemic viral resurgence define the Class of 2026 pediatric respiratory cohort, alongside cystic fibrosis, gut microbiome, and pediatric asthma. RSV, post-pandemic resurgence, and cystic fibrosis rose sharply from Class of 2025, while CFTR modulator therapy and airway microbiome studies receded among top-cited papers.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Pediatric health and respiratory diseases |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 5,248 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Respiratory syncytial virus, CFTR modulator therapy, Cystic fibrosis, Post-pandemic viral resurgence, Gut microbiome |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 17–49 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved Jul 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Microbial colonization programs are structured by breastfeeding and guide healthy respiratory development | Liat Shenhav, Kelsey Fehr, Myrtha E Reyna, Charisse Petersen, Darlene L Y Dai, Ruixue Dai, Vanessa Breton, Laura Rossi, Marek Smieja, Elinor Simons, Michael A Silverman, Maayan Levy, Lars Bode, Catherine J Field, Jean S Marshall, Theo J Moraes, Piush J Mandhane, Stuart E Turvey, Padmaja Subbarao, Michael G Surette, Meghan B Azad | Liat Shenhav, Padmaja Subbarao, Michael G. Surette, Meghan B. Azad | Institute for Systems Genetics, United States | Cell | 49 | 10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.022 |
| 2 | Antibiotic-driven dysbiosis in early life disrupts indole-3-propionic acid production and exacerbates allergic airway inflammation in adulthood | Olaf Perdijk, Alana Butler, Matthew Macowan, Roxanne Chatzis, Edyta Bulanda, Rhiannon D Grant, Nicola L Harris, Tomasz P Wypych, Benjamin J Marsland | Olaf Perdijk, Tomasz P. Wypych, Benjamin J. Marsland | Monash University, Australia | Immunity | 47 | 10.1016/j.immuni.2024.06.010 |
| 3 | Systematic review of the association between short‐chain fatty acids and allergic diseases | Mari Sasaki, Noor H A Suaini, Jamie Afghani, Kristina N Heye, Liam O'Mahony, Carina Venter, Roger Lauener, Remo Frei, Caroline Roduit | Mari Sasaki | University Children's Hospital Zürich, Switzerland | Allergy | 38 | 10.1111/all.16065 |
| 4 | Surge of Pediatric Respiratory Tract Infections after the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Concept of “Immune Debt” | Lea Lenglart, Luigi Titomanlio, Zsolt Bognar, Silvia Bressan, Danilo Buonsenso, Tisham De, Ruth Farrugia, Kate Honeyford, Ian K Maconochie, Henriette A Moll, Rianne Oostenbrink, Niccolo Parri, Damian Roland, Esra Akyüz Özkan, Laura Almeida, Ilaria Alberti, François Angoulvant, Zein Assad, Camille Aupiais, Michael Barrett, Romain Basmaci, Dorine Borensztajn, Susana Castanhinha, Antonio Chiaretti, Robert Cohen, Sheena Durnin, Patrick Fitzpatrick, Susanne Greber-Platzer, Romain Guedj, Florian Hey, Lina Jankauskaite, Kristina Keitel, Ines Mascarenhas, Gregorio P Milani, Anna Maria Musolino, Zanda Pučuka, Malin Ryd Rinder, Maria Chiara Supino, Francesca Tirelli, Ruud G Nijman, Naim Ouldali, EPISODES Study Group | Léa Lenglart | Robert Debré University Hospital, France | The Journal of Pediatrics | 34 | 10.1016/j.jpeds.2024.114420 |
| 5 | Nirsevimab and Acute Bronchiolitis Episodes in Pediatric Emergency Departments | David Andina Martínez, Gemma Claret Teruel, Manuel Gijón Mediavilla, Amaia Cámara Otegui, Laura Baños López, Begoña de Miguel Lavisier, Clara Ferrero García-Loygorri, Victoria Sánchez Tatay, Svetlana Pavlovic Nesic, Nuria Clerigué Arrieta, Verónica Gimeno-Hernández Garza, Jose Lorenzo Guerra Diez, Adrián Ranera Málaga, Silvia Escalada Pellitero, Clara Barrueco Ramos, Jose Antonio Alonso-Cadenas, Impact of universal Respiratory Syncytial Virus prophylaxis in Spain Working Group | David Andina Martínez | Hospital Infantil Universitario Niño Jesús, Spain | PEDIATRICS | 33 | 10.1542/peds.2024-066584 |
| 6 | European Respiratory Society statement on preschool wheezing disorders: updated definitions, knowledge gaps and proposed future research directions | Heidi Makrinioti, Valentina Fainardi, Klaus Bonnelykke, Adnan Custovic, Lisa Cicutto, Courtney Coleman, Thomas Eiwegger, Claudia Kuehni, Alexander Moeller, Eva Pedersen, Marielle Pijnenburg, Hilary Pinnock, Sarath Ranganathan, Thomy Tonia, Padmaja Subbarao, Sejal Saglani | Heidi Makrinioti | Massachusetts General Hospital, United States | European Respiratory Journal | 31 | 10.1183/13993003.00624-2024 |
| 7 | Epidemiological characteristics of common respiratory pathogens in children | Guojian Lv, Limei Shi, Yi Liu, Xuecheng Sun, Kai Mu | Kai Mu | Zibo Maternal and Child Health Hospital, China | Scientific Reports | 30 | 10.1038/s41598-024-65006-3 |
| 8 | [Guidelines for the management of community-acquired pneumonia in children (2024 revision)]. | Subspecialty Group of Respiratory, the Society of Pediatrics, Chinese Medical Association, Editorial Board, Chinese Journal of Pediatrics, China Medicine Education Association Committee on Pediatrics | Subspecialty Group of Respiratory, the Society of Pediatrics, Chinese Medical Association | Chinese Medical Association, China | PubMed | 29 | 10.3760/cma.j.cn112140-20240728-00523 |
| 9 | Pharmacological Improvement of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Function Rescues Airway Epithelial Homeostasis and Host Defense in Children with Cystic Fibrosis | Jennifer Loske, Mirjam Völler, Sören Lukassen, Mirjam Stahl, Loreen Thürmann, Anke Seegebarth, Jobst Röhmel, Sebastian Wisniewski, Marey Messingschlager, Stephan Lorenz, Sven Klages, Roland Eils, Irina Lehmann, Marcus A Mall, Simon Y Graeber, Saskia Trump | Jennifer Loske | Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany | American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine | 28 | 10.1164/rccm.202310-1836oc |
| 10 | Impact of COVID‑19 pandemic restrictions and subsequent relaxation on the prevalence of respiratory virus hospitalizations in children | Ahmed Abushahin, Haneen Toma, Amal Alnaimi, Mutasim Abu-Hasan, Abdullah Alneirab, Hadeel Alzoubi, Antonisamy Belavendra, Ibrahim Janahi | Ahmed Abushahin | Sidra Medicine, Qatar | BMC Pediatrics | 23 | 10.1186/s12887-024-04566-9 |
| 11 | Recommendations for Prevention and Control of Influenza in Children, 2024–2025: Policy Statement | Committee on Infectious Diseases | Committee on Infectious Diseases | American Academy of Pediatrics, United States | PEDIATRICS | 23 | 10.1542/peds.2024-068507 |
| 12 | Safety and Immunogenicity of an mRNA-Based hMPV/PIV3 Combination Vaccine in Seropositive Children | Sabine Schnyder Ghamloush, Brandon Essink, Bo Hu, Shiva Kalidindi, Louie Morsy, Chioma Egwuenu-Dumbuya, Archana Kapoor, Bethany Girard, Rakesh Dhar, Rebecca Lackey, Matthew D Snape, Christine A Shaw | Christine A. Shaw | Moderna, Inc., United States | PEDIATRICS | 21 | 10.1542/peds.2023-064748 |
| 13 | A lactobacilli-based inhaled live biotherapeutic product attenuates pulmonary neutrophilic inflammation | Teodora Nicola, Nancy Wenger, Xin Xu, Michael Evans, Luhua Qiao, Gabriel Rezonzew, Youfeng Yang, Tamas Jilling, Camilla Margaroli, Kristopher Genschmer, Kent Willis, Namasivayam Ambalavanan, J Edwin Blalock, Amit Gaggar, Charitharth Vivek Lal | Charitharth Vivek Lal | University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States | Nature Communications | 21 | 10.1038/s41467-024-51169-0 |
| 14 | Evaluation of elexacaftor–tezacaftor–ivacaftor treatment in individuals with cystic fibrosis and CFTRN1303K in the USA: a prospective, multicentre, open-label, single-arm trial | George M Solomon, Rachel W Linnemann, Rachel Rich, Ashleigh Streby, Brian Buehler, Eric Hunter, Kadambari Vijaykumar, William R Hunt, John J Brewington, Andras Rab, Shasha P Bai, Adrianna L Westbrook, Carmel McNicholas-Bevensee, Jong Hong, Candela Manfredi, Cristina Barilla, Shingo Suzuki, Brian R Davis, Eric J Sorscher | George M. Solomon | University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States | The Lancet Respiratory Medicine | 21 | 10.1016/s2213-2600(24)00205-4 |
| 15 | Safety and Pharmacokinetics of Nirsevimab in Immunocompromised Children | Joseph Domachowske, Ulrika Wählby Hamrén, Irfana Banu, Roberta Baronio, Bhanu Basavaraju, Anthonet Koen, Amanda Leach, Vaishali S Mankad, Pia S Pannaraj, Pere Soler-Palacin, Therese Takas, Masaaki Mori, Tonya Villafana, MUSIC Study Group | Joseph Domachowske, Ulrika Wählby Hamrén | State University of New York Upstate Medical University, United States | PEDIATRICS | 20 | 10.1542/peds.2024-066508 |
| 16 | Clinical Remission in Patients Affected by Severe Eosinophilic Asthma on Dupilumab Therapy: A Long-Term Real-Life Study | Carla Maria Irene Quarato, Pasquale Tondo, Donato Lacedonia, Piera Soccio, Paolo Fuso, Eugenio Sabato, Anela Hoxhallari, Maria Pia Foschino Barbaro, Giulia Scioscia | Giulia Scioscia | Policlinico Universitario "Riuniti" di Foggia, Italy | Journal of Clinical Medicine | 19 | 10.3390/jcm13010291 |
| 17 | Increased Trend of Adenovirus Activity After the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea: Analysis of National Surveillance Data | Nam-Joo Lee, SangHee Woo, Jee Eun Rhee, Jaehee Lee, Sangwon Lee, Eun-Jin Kim | Nam-Joo Lee | Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), South Korea | Annals of Laboratory Medicine | 19 | 10.3343/alm.2023.0484 |
| 18 | The respiratory microbiome is linked to the severity of RSV infections and the persistence of symptoms in children | Maartje Kristensen, Wouter A A de Steenhuijsen Piters, Joanne Wildenbeest, Marlies A van Houten, Roy P Zuurbier, Raiza Hasrat, Kayleigh Arp, Mei Ling J N Chu, Marie Billard, Terho Heikkinen, Steve Cunningham, Matthew Snape, Simon B Drysdale, Ryan S Thwaites, Federico Martinon-Torres, Andrew J Pollard, Peter J M Openshaw, Jeroen Aerssen, Justyna Binkowska, Louis Bont, Debby Bogaert, REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope (RESCEU) investigators | Maartje Kristensen | University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands | Cell Reports Medicine | 19 | 10.1016/j.xcrm.2024.101836 |
| 19 | Reported Adverse Events in a Multicenter Cohort of Patients Ages 6-18 Years with Cystic Fibrosis and at Least One F508del Allele Receiving Elexacaftor/Tezacaftor/Ivacaftor | Vito Terlizzi, Cristina Fevola, Santiago Presti, Alice Castaldo, Valeria Daccò, Laura Claut, Angela Sepe, Fabio Majo, Rosaria Casciaro, Irene Esposito, Pamela Vitullo, Marta Salvi, Patrizia Troiani, Francesca Ficili, Giuseppe Fabio Parisi, Stefano Pantano, Stefano Costa, Giuseppina Leonetti, Nicola Palladino, Giovanni Taccetti, Paolo Bonomi, Donatello Salvatore | Vito Terlizzi | Meyer Children's Hospital IRCCS, Italy | The Journal of Pediatrics | 18 | 10.1016/j.jpeds.2024.114176 |
| 20 | Gene expression responses of CF airway epithelial cells exposed to elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor suggest benefits beyond improved CFTR channel function | Thomas H Hampton, Roxanna Barnaby, Carolyn Roche, Amanda Nymon, Kiyoshi Ferreira Fukutani, Todd A MacKenzie, Lily A Charpentier, Bruce A Stanton | Thomas H Hampton | Dartmouth College, United States | American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology | 17 | 10.1152/ajplung.00272.2024 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The informative word cloud across the 50 highest 18-month-cited pediatric health and respiratory diseases papers reveals a field shaped by viral respiratory disease, cystic fibrosis therapeutics, and pandemic-era epidemiology—not generic pediatric cohort descriptors. Respiratory syncytial virus leads at 9 of 50 papers (normalized frequency 0.18), reflecting intense citation weight for RSV prophylaxis trials, bronchiolitis burden, and real-world effectiveness of nirsevimab. CFTR modulator therapy and Elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor each appear in 7 papers (0.14), underscoring sustained focus on triple-combination therapy and lung-function outcomes in pediatric cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis itself ranks in 6 papers (0.12), while post-pandemic viral resurgence appears in 5 (0.10), capturing immunity-debt analyses and rebound pediatric respiratory tract infections after COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions lifted. A secondary cluster—gut microbiome, pediatric asthma, human metapneumovirus, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and pediatric intensive care unit admission (4 papers each, 0.08)—links early-life microbiota, allergic airway disease, and severe infection epidemiology. Smaller but visible terms include immunity debt, bronchiolitis, preschool wheezing, human bocavirus, allergic sensitization, and infant microbiome development, signaling that influential 2024 work spans prevention, host–microbe interactions, and post-pandemic surveillance across European and multinational pediatric cohorts.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Comparing normalized concept frequencies between the Class of 2025 (2023 publications) and Class of 2026 (2024 publications) cohorts shows a pronounced reorientation toward acute viral respiratory disease and pandemic aftermath, alongside modest retreat of some cystic-fibrosis–centric framing among top-cited papers. Respiratory syncytial virus exhibited the largest gain (+0.10 normalized frequency; 4 versus 9 papers), followed by post-pandemic viral resurgence (+0.08; 1 versus 5) and cystic fibrosis (+0.06; 3 versus 6). The topic evolution card underscores that Class of 2026 bars extend furthest for RSV, post-pandemic resurgence, non-pharmaceutical interventions, pediatric ICU admission, human metapneumovirus, pediatric asthma, and gut microbiome—topics aligned with immunity-debt discourse, universal RSV immunization rollouts, and microbiome-guided respiratory development. Conversely, CFTR modulator therapy showed the steepest decline among leading terms (−0.04; 9 versus 7 papers), even as Elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor held steady (7 papers in both cohorts). Airway microbiome (−0.04; 4 versus 2) and 16S rRNA gene sequencing (−0.04; 4 versus 2) also receded, alongside modest drops for F508del mutation (−0.02) and nasopharyngeal swab sampling. Together, these shifts suggest that the most-cited 2024 pediatric respiratory papers emphasize post-pandemic viral epidemiology, severe infection outcomes, and early-life host–microbe interactions over standalone CFTR-modulator and airway-microbiome sequencing studies that dominated the prior cohort.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Pediatric health and respiratory diseases Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/pediatric-health-and-respiratory-diseases/2026. Accessed 2026-07-14.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
```