miR-136 Targets MIEN1 and Involves the Metastasis of Colon Cancer by Suppressing Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition [Retraction]

Ren H, Qi Y, Yin X, Gao J. Onco Targets Ther. 2018:11;67-74.

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 1 and 3 with images from other unrelated articles. Specifically,

• Western blot bands and the background from images in Figure 1B have been duplicated with the bands and background for images from Figure 2D from Liu Y, Zhang B, Shi T, Qin H. miR-182 promotes tumor growth and increases chemoresistance of human anaplastic thyroid cancer by targeting tripartite motif 8. Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:1115-1122. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S110468.
• Images for Figure 3C have been duplicated with images for Figure 3 from Qiu, P., Xu, T., Lu, X., Yang, W., Zhang, Y., & Xu, G. (2018). MicroRNA‑378 regulates cell proliferation and migration by repressing RNF31 in pituitary adenoma Retraction in /10.3892/ol.2023.14196. Oncology Letters, 15, 789-794. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2017.7431.
• Images for Figure 3D have been duplicated with images for Figure 2 from Wang, S., Cao, K., He, Q., Yin, Z., & Zhou, J. (2016). miR-199a-5p induces cell invasion by suppressing E-cadherin expression in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Oncology Letters, 12, 97-101. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2016.4602 and Figure 2C from Zhao, J., Li, B., Shu, C., Ma, Y., & Gong, Y. (2017). Downregulation of miR‑30a is associated with proliferation and invasion via targeting MEF2D in cervical cancer Retraction in /10.3892/ol.2023.14168. Oncology Letters, 14, 7437-7442. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2017.7114.

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The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.