Downregulation of Long Noncoding RNA TUG1 Inhibits Proliferation and Induces Apoptosis Through the TUG1/miR-142/ZEB2 Axis in Bladder Cancer Cells [Retraction]

Liu Q, Liu H, Cheng HP, Li Y, Li XD, Zhu CY. Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:2461—2471. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S124595

We, the Editors and Publisher of the journal OncoTargets and Therapy, have retracted the published article.

After publication, concerns were raised by a third party in 2025 about the integrity of the data in Figures 2 and 5 of the article.

Further investigation conducted by the Journal and Publisher identified significant integrity concerns, including unexpected similarities between the flow cytometry plots in Figure 2 of the article and the Western blots in Figures 3 with figures in the following articles that are representative of different samples and treatment conditions. These articles are from unrelated author groups, and were published contemporaneously:

Liu L, Ren W, Chen K. MiR-34a Promotes Apoptosis and Inhibits Autophagy by Targeting HMGB1 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells. Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry. 2017;41(5):1981-1992. https://doi.org/10.1159/000475277

Wang B, Ge Z, Cheng Z, Zhao Z. Tanshinone IIA suppresses the progression of atherosclerosis by inhibiting the apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells and the proliferation and migration of macrophages induced by ox-LDL. Biology Open. 2017;6(4):489-495. https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.024133

Yao J, Qin L, Miao S, Wang X, Wu X. Overexpression of miR-506 suppresses proliferation and promotes apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells by targeting astrocyte elevated gene-1. Oncology Letters. 2016;12(3):1840-1848. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2016.4827

Sun Z, Zhang W, Li Q. miR-125a suppresses viability and glycolysis and induces apoptosis by targeting Hexokinase 2 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Cell Biosci. 2017;7:51. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13578-017-0178-y

Li H, Zhao J. let-7d suppresses proliferation and invasion and promotes apoptosis of meningioma by targeting AEG-1. Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:4895-4904. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S141008

Li Y, Chen D, Gao X, Li X, Shi G. LncRNA NEAT1 Regulates Cell Viability and Invasion in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma through the miR-129/CTBP2 Axis, Disease Markers. 2017;5314649:11. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5314649

Upon further review, the Journal and Publisher identified additional integrity concerns present in Figures 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 due to unexpected similarities between the Western blots that are representative of different treatments.

When approached for an explanation, the authors did not respond to the queries raised by the Journal and Publisher.

As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, we are therefore retracting the article. The corresponding author listed in this publication has been informed.

We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and the COPE guidelines.

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