Retracted Article: Long noncoding RNA PTPRG-AS1 regulates growth of glioma cells by sponging miR-185-5p
Authors: Bingjian Yuan
Bingqian Ding
Chenyang Xu
Tao He
Zhenjiang Li
Journal: RSC Advances (2019)
Discipline: CHEMISTRY
Keywords: lncRNA; PTPRG-AS1; glioma progression; molecular mechanisms; miR-185-5p
Affiliations: Department of Neurosurgery, Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Kaifeng, China

Abstract:  Previous studies have found that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type, G, antisense (PTPRG-AS1) was upregulated in glioma cells. Our study aimed to explore the detailed molecular mechanisms of PTPRG-AS1 involved in glioma progression. qRT-PCR assay was performed to measure the expressions of PTPRG-AS1 and microRNA-185-5p (miR-185-5p). Cell viability, migration, invasion, and apoptosis were determined by CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, transwell assay, and flow cytometry assay. Autophagy was evaluated using GFP-LC3 puncta analysis and western blot. Luciferase reporter and RIP assays were employed to explore the association between PTPRG-AS1 and miR-185-5p. Our data showed PTPRG-AS1 was upregulated in glioma cells and tissues. Besides, high expression of PTPRG-AS1 was positively associated with a low survival rate. Upregulation of PTPRG-AS1 promoted proliferation, migration, invasion, colony formations, and autophagy, and inhibited cell apoptosis in U373-MG cells. By contrast, PTPRG-AS1 downregulation had the inverse effect in SHG44 cells. PTPRG-AS1 negatively regulated the expression of miR-185-5p in U373-MG and SHG44 cells and the expression of miR-185-5p was decreased in glioma tissues and cells. In addition, miR-185-5p overexpression suppressed proliferation, metastasis, colony formations, and autophagy, while inducing cell apoptosis in SHG44 cells. As expected, miR-185-5p depletion exhibited the inverse effect in U373-MG cells. Enhanced expression of miR-185-5p attenuated the effect of PTPRG-AS1 upregulation on U373-MG cells, while silencing of miR-185-5p undermined the effect of downregulation of PTPRG-AS1 on SHG44 cells. Our data disclosed that LncRNA PTPRG-AS1 was upregulated in glioma cells and tissues. PTPRG-AS1 regulated glioma proliferation, invasion, migration, apoptosis and autophagy by sponging miR-185-5p in vitro. A new signaling pathway PTPRG-AS1/miR-185-5p was first observed in glioma. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
 The Royal Society of Chemistry hereby wholly retracts this RSC Advances article due to concerns with the reliability of the data. The images in the article, and the raw data provided by the authors, were screened by an image integrity expert. Several western blot control panels contain duplicated bands, including the u03b2-actin bands in Fig. 3B, 3D and 7D. In addition, analysis of the LC3 I band in Fig. 3B shows that the bands may have been inserted onto the background. The raw data provided by the authors was not uncut and unprocessed and therefore could not be used as verifiable raw data to validate the published images. Furthermore, the raw data provided by the authors was found to closely resemble raw data for a number of other articles, which is unexpected given that there are completely different author lists for these articles. Given the significance of the concerns about the validity of both the data in the article and the raw data provided by the authors, the findings presented in this paper are not reliable. Chenyang Xu and Bingqian Ding oppose the retraction. The other authors have been informed but have not responded to any correspondence regarding the retraction. Signed: Laura Fisher, Executive Editor, RSC Advances Date: 19th January 2021 ,