MicroRNA-188-5p Promotes Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition by Targeting ID4 Through Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling in Retinoblastoma [Retraction]

Yang M, Li Y, Wei W. Onco Targets Ther. 2019;12:10251-10262.

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

Concerns were raised about the integrity of the data in the article after it was found images from Figure 3 had been duplicated with those from other unrelated articles. Specifically,

• Images for Figure 3C and 3D, have been duplicated with the images for Figure 1B; Figure 2C; Figure 3A and 3B; Figure 3F; Figure 4E; Figure 4F and Figure 6A from You S, Li W, Guan Y. Tunicamycin inhibits colon carcinoma growth and aggressiveness via modulation of the ERK-JNK-mediated AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Molecular Medicine Reports. 2018;17:4203-4212. https://doi.org/10.3892/mmr.2018.8444; Zhang R, Liu J, Yu S, et al. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) Promotes Recruitment of Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) via CXCR4 Signaling Pathway to Improve Bone Defect Repair. Med Sci Monit. 2019;25:5572-5579. https://doi.org/10.12659/MSM.916838; Xie F, He C, Gao S, et al. KIF20A silence inhibits the migration, invasion and proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer and regulates the JNK pathway. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2020;47:135–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1681.13183; Hong B, Zhang J, Yang W. Activation of the LKB1‑SIK1 signaling pathway inhibits the TGF‑β‑mediated epithelial‑mesenchymal transition and apoptosis resistance of ovarian carcinoma cells. Molecular Medicine Reports. 2018;17:2837-2844. https://doi.org/10.3892/mmr.2017.8229; Wang Y, Jiang F, Xiong Y, Cheng X, Qiu Z, Song R. LncRNA TTN-AS1 sponges miR-376a-3p to promote colorectal cancer progression via upregulating KLF15. Life Sciences. 2020;244:116936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2019.116936; Yang X, Xing G, Liu S, Li B, He Y, Wang F. LncRNA LOXL1-AS1 promotes endometrial cancer progression by sponging miR-28-5p to upregulate RAP1B expression. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2020;125:109839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2020.109839 and Lei D, Zhang F, Yao D, Xiong N, Jiang X, Zhao H. MiR-338-5p suppresses proliferation, migration, invasion, and promote apoptosis of glioblastoma cells by directly targeting EFEMP1. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2017;89:957-965. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2017.01.137, respectively.
• In addition, the image for Figure 3E, 188-5p has been duplicated with the image for Figure 3H, SH ID4.

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’.