This an editor’s note regarding: Keith A. Spriggs, Laura C. Cobbold, Simon H. Ridley, Mark Coldwell, Andrew Bottley, Martin Bushell, Anne E. Willis, Kenneth Siddle, The human insulin receptor mRNA contains a functional internal ribosome entry segment, Nucleic Acids Research, Volume 37, Issue 17, 1 September 2009, Pages 5881–5893, https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkp623.
In January 2022, the journal published a correction notice for this article: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac063.
In July 2025, the Editors were alerted to apparent image duplication between Figures 3B(ii) and both the original and corrected versions of Figure 4B(ii). These concerns have also been raised on PubPeer (https://pubpeer.com/publications/369F221DA8F5AFF567C5BDDC2F5B13#1).
Specifically, the hnRNPK and PTB1 lanes of the IR-IRES RNA panel in Fig. 3B(ii) appear very similar to the 0 and PTB lanes of the IR panel in Fig. 4B(ii), despite representing different experimental conditions (see orange boxes in Figure 1). The nPTB panels in both figures also show a high degree of similarity (see blue boxes in Figure 1).
Figure 1
As the article was published 16 years ago, the authors no longer have access to the original data. They have explained that the hnRNPK lane was mistakenly used in place of the 0 lane in Figure 4B(ii), and that the lanes in this figure were proportionally adjusted in size to match the formatting of other panels.
While these issues may not affect the results, discussion, or conclusions of the article, in the absence of original data, the Editors advise readers to examine Figures 3 and 4 with care.
Julian E. Sale and Barry L. Stoddard
Senior Executive Editors