Retraction: Methylation-mediated silencing of microRNA-211 promotes cell growth and epithelial to mesenchymal transition through activation of the AKT/β-catenin pathway in GBM

Weidong Li¹,^*, Xiaobo Miao²,^*, Lingling Liu³,^*, Yue Zhang⁴,^*, Xuejun Jin¹, Xiaojun Luo⁵, Hai Gao⁶,⁷, Xubin Deng¹

¹Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
²Department of Radiation and Chemotherapy Oncology, Ningbo No.2 Hospital, Ningbo, China
³Department of Hematology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
⁴Department of Radiation Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
⁵Traditional Chinese Medicine-Integrated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
⁶Xiamen Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xiamen, China
⁷Xiamen Hospital Affiliated to Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xiamen, China
^*These authors have contributed equally to this work

Published: April 24, 2026

This article has been retracted:Oncotarget has completed its investigation of this paper. It was determined that the article contains instances of image duplication and overlap with unrelated papers:

• Figure 1A: The SNAP25 blot is a duplicate of the GAPDH blot in Figure 5B of earlier published paper [1]. • Figure 3A: Five tumor images are duplicates of tumor images in Figure 6B from earlier submitted unrelated paper [2].
• Figure 5A: The p-Akt blot was found to be identical to the p-Akt blot in Figure 5B of [2].
• Figure 4D: The GAPDH image was found in Figure 4F as b-actin in later publication [3].

The authors were notified of these findings. While the corresponding author, Dr. Deng, promised to clarify the issue, no response was provided. Given the nature of these duplications, the Editorial decision has been made to retract the article. The authors have been notified of this decision.

REFERENCES

1. Braidy N, Essa MM, Poljak A, Selvaraju S, Al-Adawi S, Manivasagm T, Thenmozhi AJ, Ooi L, Sachdev P, Guillemin GJ. Consumption of pomegranates improves synaptic function in a transgenic mice model of Alzheimer’s disease. Oncotarget. 2016; 7:64589–604. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.10905. [PubMed]. Retraction in: Oncotarget. 2025; 16:758. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28773. [PubMed].

2. Mo Y, Lu Y, Wang P, Huang S, He L, Li D, Li F, Huang J, Lin X, Li X, Che S, Chen Q. Long non-coding RNA XIST promotes cell growth by regulating miR-139-5p/PDK1/AKT axis in hepatocellular carcinoma. Tumour Biol. 2017; 39:1010428317690999. https:// doi.org/10.1177/1010428317690999. [PubMed].

3. Liu Z, Wu X, Lv J, Sun H, Zhou F. Resveratrol induces p53 in colorectal cancer through SET7/9. Oncol Lett. 2019; 17:3783–89. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2019.10034. [PubMed]https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2019.10034. [PubMed].

Original article: Oncotarget. 2017; 8:25167-25176. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.15531.