MICROBIOLOGY Retraction for “Dengue virus envelope protein domain I/II hinge determines long-lived serotype-specific dengue immunity,” by William B. Messer, Ruklanthi de Alwis, Boyd L. Yount, Scott R. Royal, Jeremy P. Huynh, Scott A. Smith, James E. Crowe, Jr., Benjamin J. Doranz, Kristen M. Kahle, Jennifer M. Pfaff, Laura J. White, Carlos A. Sariol, Aravinda M. de Silva, and Ralph S. Baric, which appeared in issue 5, February 4, 2014, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (111:1939–1944; first published January 2, 2014; 10.1073/pnas.1317350111).
The authors wish to note the following: “We have discovered a significant error that compromises our ability to interpret the in vitro and in vivo data reported in this paper. During recent follow-up studies with the rDENV-3/4 virus, we discovered that the original stocks used to generate the in vitro neutralization data and in vivo primate infection data reported in the manuscript contained contaminating wild-type DENV-4 virus. We have since determined this low-level contamination was sufficient to confound the chimeric DENV-3/4 results, rendering them uninterpretable. We emphasize that the escape mutant and recombinant protein data reported in the paper are in no way compromised by this contamination and stand on their own. Specifically, mapping of the critical 5J7 antibody epitope residues, shown in Fig. 1, did not utilize any recombinant chimeric DENV. The viral antibody escape mutants were derived from wild-type infectious clones and were sequence verified. The loss of antibody binding studies were conducted by Integral Molecular and used a recombinant protein expression system independent of the chimeric DENV. We deeply apologize for this inadvertent error. Accordingly, we have unanimously decided to retract the manuscript at this time. Given the large number of related constructs that we have subsequently generated in the laboratory, the strategy is sound; however, we cannot interpret the data and results reported in the manuscript.”
William B. Messer
Ruklanthi de Alwis
Boyd L. Yount
Scott R. Royal
Jeremy P. Huynh
Scott A. Smith
James E. Crowe, Jr.
Benjamin J. Doranz
Kristen M. Kahle
Jennifer M. Pfaff
Laura J. White
Carlos A. Sariol
Aravinda M. de Silva
Ralph S. Baric