Zhang L, Ding F. Onco Targets Ther. 2019;12:6577–6589.
We, the Editors and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy, have retracted the following article.
Following publication of the article, concerns were raised about the duplication of images from Figures 3, 5 and 7 with images from other unrelated articles. Specifically,
Images for Figure 3A, have been duplicated with images for Figure 4B from Guo H, Peng J, Hu J, et al. BAIAP2L2 promotes the proliferation, migration and invasion of osteosarcoma associated with the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Journal of Bone Oncology. 2021;31:100393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbo.2021.100393 and Figure 4D from Ding F, Lai J, Gao Y, et al. NEAT1/miR-23a-3p/KLF3: a novel regulatory axis in melanoma cancer progression. Cancer Cell Int. 2019;19:217. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12935-019-0927-6.
The image for Figure 5A, BCAP-37, SiRNA+inhibitor, has been duplicated with the image for Figure 2C, Agomir-936 from Xu L, Li W, Shi Q, et al. MicroRNA‑936 inhibits the malignant phenotype of retinoblastoma by directly targeting HDAC9 and deactivating the PI3K/AKT pathway. Oncology Reports. 2020;43:635-645. https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2020.7456 (RETRACTED) and Figure 3e, p-XIST+miR-192 mimics, from Wang J, Yin G, Bian H, et al. LncRNA XIST upregulates TRIM25 via negatively regulating miR-192 in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma. Mol Med. 2021;27:41. https://doi.org/10.1186/s10020-021-00278-3.
Images for Figure 7A, have been duplicated with images for Figure 3E from Ouyang Y, Tang Y, Fu L, et al. Exosomes secreted by chronic hepatitis B patients with PNALT and liver inflammation grade ≥ A2 promoted the progression of liver cancer by transferring miR-25-3p to inhibit the co-expression of TCF21 and HHIP. Cell Prolif. 2020;53:e12833. https://doi.org/10.1111/cpr.12833; Figure 5B from Li H, Yao G, Zhai J, Hu D, Fan Y. LncRNA FTX Promotes Proliferation and Invasion of Gastric Cancer via miR-144/ZFX Axis. Onco Targets Ther. 2019;12:11701-11713. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S220998 (RETRACTED) and Figure 5C from Teng L, Liu P, Song X, Wang H, Sun J, Yin Z. Long Non-Coding RNA Nuclear-Enriched Abundant Transcript 1 (NEAT1) Represses Proliferation of Trophoblast Cells in Rats with Preeclampsia via the MicroRNA-373/FLT1 Axis. Med Sci Monit. 2020;26:e927305. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12659/MSM.927305.
The authors did not respond to our queries and were unable to provide an explanation for the duplicated images or provide data for the study. As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, we are therefore retracting the article and the authors were notified of this.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and COPE guidelines.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.