miR-221 Suppression Through Nanoparticle-Based miRNA Delivery System for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Therapy and Its Diagnosis as a Potential Biomarker [Retraction]

Li F, Wang F, Zhu C, Wei Q, Zhang T, Zhou YL. Int J Nanomedicine. 2018;13:2295–2307.

The Editor and Publisher of International Journal of Nanomedicine wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised regarding the integrity of the data and an investigation found overlap in images from Figure 4. Specifically,

• The image used in Figure 4D, 48 hours, Scramble has regions of overlap with Figure 4D, 48 hours, miR-221 inhibitor.

The authors responded to our queries and provided data associated with the reported study. However, despite the authors’ assistance, a satisfactory explanation for how the images came to be duplicated could not be provided, and the validity of the published work could not be verified. The decision was made to retract the article and the authors were notified of this.

We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.