RETRACTED ARTICLE: Icariin Mitigates the Growth and Invasion Ability of Human Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma via Inhibiting Toll-Like Receptor 4 and Phosphorylation of NF-κB P65

This paper has been retracted.

Lei K, Ma B, Shi P, et al. OncoTargets and Therapy. 2020;13:299–307.

At the authors request, we, the Editor and Publisher of the journal OncoTargets and Therapy have retracted the published article.

Following publication of the article, the authors raised concerns about the duplication of images from Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 with images from unrelated articles. Specifically,

• Images from Figure 2A have been duplicated with images from Figure 2A from Li L, Liu J-D, Gao G-D, Zhang K, Song Y-W, Li H-B. Puerarin 6″-O-xyloside suppressed HCC via regulating proliferation, stemness, and apoptosis with inhibited PI3K/AKT/mTOR. Cancer Med. 2020;9:6399–6410. https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.3285; Figure 3H from Hu X, Zou W, Liu D, Qin G, Jiang L. RETRACTED ARTICLE: The Down-Regulation of TrkB Alleviates the Malignant Biological Behavior and Cancer Stem-Like Property of Laryngeal Cancer. Cancer Manag Res. 2020;12:6865–6875. https://doi.org/10.2147/CMAR.S260693; Figure 1E from Wang W, Gou X, Xue H, Liu K. Ganoderan (GDN) Regulates The Growth, Motility And Apoptosis Of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells Through ERK Signaling Pathway In Vitro And In Vivo. Onco Targets Ther. 2019;12:8821–8832. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S221161; Figure 4B from Chen X, Yang X, Mu J, Yue C. Ligustrazine inhibits the viability and motility of colon cancer cells. Transl Cancer Res. 2020;9(5):3203–3213. https://doi.org/10.21037/tcr-20-940; Figure 1B from Wang R, Zhu X, Wang Q, et al. The anti-tumor effect of taxifolin on lung cancer via suppressing stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in vitro and oncogenesis in nude mice. Ann Transl Med. 2020;8(9):590. https://doi.org/10.21037/atm-20-3329; and Figure 1C from Zhou J, Jiang Y-Y, Chen H, Wu Y-C, Zhang L. Tanshinone I attenuates the malignant biological properties of ovarian cancer by inducing apoptosis and autophagy via the inactivation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Cell Prolif. 2020; 53:e12739. https://doi.org/10.1111/cpr.12739.
• The image for Figure 3A, SCC-15, Control, has been duplicated with the image for Figure 6A, Control from Zhang K-q, Chu X-d. GANT61 plays antitumor effects by inducing oxidative stress through miRNA-1286/RAB31 axis in osteosarcoma. Cell Biol Int. 2021;45:61–73. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbin.11467.
• The image for Figure 4C, p65 fluorescence, SCC-15, ICA (5 µM), has been duplicated with the image for Figure 7J, Hep3B, sg-NC from Pu J, Huang Y, Fang Q, et al. Hypoxia-induced Fascin-1 upregulation is regulated by Akt/Rac1 axis and enhances malignant properties of liver cancer cells via mediating actin cytoskeleton rearrangement and Hippo/YAP activation. Cell Death Discov. 2021;7:385. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-021-00778-5.
• The image for Figure 5B, Ki67, Control, has been duplicated with the image for Figure 6D, CD44, Control for Li N, Cheng C, Wang T. MiR-181c-5p Mitigates Tumorigenesis in Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma via Targeting Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3β Interaction Protein (GSKIP). Onco Targets Ther. 2020;13:4495–4505. https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S245254.

The authors were cooperative and responded to our queries but were unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for how the images came to be duplicated or provide satisfactory original data for the study. As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, the authors requested to retract the article and the Publisher and Editor agreed with this decision.

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”.