LINC00958 Promotes the Malignancy of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma by Sponging microRNA-625 and Thus Upregulating NUAK1 [Retraction]

Chen M, Xu Z, Zhang Y, Zhang X. Onco Targets Ther. 2019;12:9277-9290.

The Editor and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy are retracting the published article. An investigation found several images within the article had been duplicated with those from other unrelated articles. Specifically,

• Figure 2D, Migration, CNE-1, si-NC, and Figure 7F, Invasion, CNE-1, si-LINC00958+antagomir-625, has been duplicated with the image from Figure 4E, HOS, agomir-NC and Figure 5I, HOS, si-NC, respectively, from Li S, Zheng K, Pei Y, Wang W, Zhang X. Long noncoding RNA NR2F1-AS1 enhances the malignant properties of osteosarcoma by increasing forkhead box A1 expression via sponging of microRNA-483-3p. Aging (Albany NY). 2019;11:11609—11623. https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102563.
• Figure 2D, Migration, CNE-1, si-LINC00958 and Figure 7F, Invasion, SUNE-1, si-LINC00958+antagomir-NC, has been duplicated with the image from Figure 2D, HeLa, si-SNHG7 and 2E, HeLa, si-SNHG7, respectively, from Wu F, Sui Y, Wang Y, Xu T, Fan L, Zhu H. Long Noncoding RNA SNHG7, a Molecular Sponge for microRNA-485, Promotes the Aggressive Behavior of Cervical Cancer by Regulating PAK4. Onco Targets Ther. 2020;13:685—699. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S232542. [Retracted]
• Figure 2D, Invasion, SUNE-1, si-NC, has been duplicated with the image from Figure 3A, U2OS, miR-NC, from Liu Y, Wang Y, Yang H, Zhao L, Song R, Tan H, Wang L. MicroRNA‑873 targets HOXA9 to inhibit the aggressive phenotype of osteosarcoma by deactivating the Wnt/β‑catenin pathway. International Journal of Oncology, 2019;54:1809—1820. https://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2019.4735. [Retracted]
• Figure 4C, CNE-1, agomir-NC and agomir-625 and Figure 7, Migration, SNUE-1, si-LINC00958+antagomir-NC, has overlap with the image from Figure 4D, SKOV3, si-NC and CAOV-3, si-FGF2 and Figure 5E, SKOV3, miR-936 mimics+pcDNA3.1, respectively, from Li C, Yu S, Wu S, Ni Y, Pan Z. MicroRNA-936 targets FGF2 to inhibit epithelial ovarian cancer aggressiveness by deactivating the PI3K/Akt pathway. Onco Targets Ther. 2019;12:5311—5322. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S213231. [Retracted]
• Figure 6D, Invasion, CNE-1, agomir-NC, has been duplicated with the image from Figure 5d, HTH83, si-NC, from Sun Y, Shi T, Ma Y, Qin H, Li K. Long noncoding RNA LINC00520 accelerates progression of papillary thyroid carcinoma by serving as a competing endogenous RNA of microRNA-577 to increase Sphk2 expression. Cell Cycle. 2020;19(7):787—800. https://doi.org/10.1080/15384101.2020.1731062.
• Figure 7F, Migration, CNE-1, si-LINC00958+antagomir-NC, has been duplicated with the image from Figure 6C, BGC-823, si-SNHG16, from Pang W, Zhai M, Wang Y, Li Z. Long noncoding RNA SNHG16 silencing inhibits the aggressiveness of gastric cancer via upregulation of microRNA-628-3p and consequent decrease of NRP1. Cancer Manag Res. 2019;11:7263—7277. https://doi.org/10.2147/CMAR.S211856. [Retracted]

The authors cooperated with the investigation but were unable to explain the duplicated images and could not provide original data for their study. As the findings could not be verified the Editor and Publisher made the decision to retract the article. The authors were notified of this decision.

We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity 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”.