Induction of Apoptosis and Autophagy via sirtuin1- and PI3K/Akt/mTOR-Mediated Pathways by Plumbagin in Human Prostate Cancer Cells [Retraction]

Zhou Z, Li X, He Z, et al. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2015;9:1511–1554.

The Editor and Publisher of Drug Design, Development and Therapy wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised regarding the alleged duplication of western blot bands in Figure 5 with those from an unrelated article. Specifically,

• Figure 5A, AMPK, DU145 cells, appear to have been duplicated with a similar image from Figure 5C, Cytoplasm, Cyt c, which was published in He et al (2015) PLOS ONE (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138504).

In addition, further analysis found that western blot bands in Figures 8 and 9 also appeared to be duplicated. Specifically,

• Figure 8A, β-actin, PC-3 cells, appears to have been duplicated with a similar image from Figure 9A, β-actin, PC-3 cells.
• Figure 8A, β-actin, DU145 cells, appears to have been duplicated with a similar image from Figure 9A, β-actin, DU145 cells.

The authors responded to our queries but were unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the duplicated images, nor were they able to provide any original data for their study. The decision was made to retract the article and the authors were notified of this.

Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.