Retracted: microRNA-34a-Upregulated Retinoic Acid-Inducible Gene-I Promotes Apoptosis and Delays Cell Cycle Transition in Cervical Cancer Cells
Authors: Yi Zhang
Hua Tang
Le Zhang
Jing Xiao
Jing-Hua Wang
Min Liu
Yu-Wei Ma
Journal: DNA and Cell Biology (2016)
Discipline: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & GENETICS
Keywords: RIG-I; miR-34a; carcinogenesis; malignancies; microRNAs
Affiliations: Tianjin Life Science Research Center and Basic Medical School, Tianjin Medical University , Tianjin, China .

Abstract:  The function of retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I) in viral replication is well documented, but its function in carcinogenesis and malignancies as well as relationship with microRNAs (miRNAs) remain poorly understood. miR-34a is an antioncogene in multiple tumors. In our study, RIG-I and miR-34a suppressed cell growth, proliferation, migration, and invasion in cervical cancer cells in vitro. miR-34a was validated as a new regulator of RIG-I by binding to its 3' untranslated region and upregulating its expression level. Furthermore, we revealed that RIG-I and miR-34a enhanced apoptosis, delayed the G1/S/G2 transition of the cell cycle, and inhibited the epithelial-mesenchymal transition process to modulate malignancies in cervical cancer cells. Phenotypic rescue experiments indicated that RIG-I mediates the effects of miR-34a in HeLa and C33A cells. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms that underlie carcinogenesis and may provide new biomarkers for the diagnosis and therapy of cervical cancer. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
 This paper by Kuo-Chen Chou contains 239 self-citations. It also contains 23 citations to papers written by the author s son, James J. Chou It has a very large overlap in content (that s a euphemism) with the following article, with an identical title: Chou KC. An Insightful 20-Year Recollection Since the Birth of Ppseudo Amino Acid Components J Math Stat Comput. 2019;1(2):5-16 https: gnomepublications.org JMSC-001.2-0001.php The author s affiliations are different in the two papers, however! , 
 Citations to Chou doubled in 2019 from an already high ca. 5500 yr to over 10,500. Is it possible to determine how many of these were self-citations? It was possible with Scopus but that function is no longer available - at least to me. ![file] , 
 For more background about the suspicious citation pattern surrounding the publications authored by Kuo-Chen Chou, please see these relevant journal editorials at [Bioinformatics] and the [Journal of Theoretical Biology] or this [Nature News item]( https: www.nature.com articles d41586-020-00335-7). The associated discussions on PubPeer are [here] and [here] . In short, this researcher was frequently asking authors to add citations to his own papers when reviewing or editing scientific articles. This has been going on for decades. I can only speculate that he has been doing a lot of reviewing and editing in 2019 (besides the self-citations reported here). , 
 That review indeed reads like a list of publications by Kuo-Chen Chou. The PDF is 13 pages long, including 9.5 pages for the entire bibliography, which leaves only 3.5 pages for the main text. More than 40% of this main text consists of references and links to Wikipedia. This manuscript has been edited by Professor John D. Wade. (from Melbourne, Australia), I have invited him to the discussion. I would be pleased to hear his opinion about the self citation pattern and the potential self-plagiarism reported by Franu00e7ois-Xavier Coudert. , 
 The subject Amino Acids paper was accepted on 7 February 2020, published online on 18 February 2020, and as of 4 March 2020 it has already been cited 6 times. All 6 citations are by Kuo-Chen Chou (Google Scholar search) , 
 A Google Scholar search on 6 March 2020 shows that Kuo-Chen Chou has 50 new publications thus far in 2020. In all but about 3 he is the sole author. Browsing though them randomly suggests that each one contains, literally, hundreds of citations to his own prior papers. , 
 #4 I have been notified by a Springer editor that they are now investigating this case. , 
 Retracted. Date unclear.  The editors have retracted this article [1] because it is a duplicate publication of Chou 2019 [2], and there is significant overlap with previously published work [3] [4]. Further, there are a high number of citations to the author s previous work which have been deemed by post-publication peer review to be unrelated to the article. Kuo-Chen Chou disagrees with this retraction. , 
 The retracted paper contains a number of exercises in self-adulation, such as this: *For more about the fantastic u201cdistorted key theoryu201d, see an insightful Wikipedia article at https: en.wikipedia.org wiki Chou%27s_distorted_key_theory_for_peptide_drugs.* The  insightful Wikipedia article was deleted on 16 February 2020. https: en.wikipedia.org w index.php?title=Special:Log logid=105814485 , 
  Further, there are a high number of citations to the author s previous work which have been deemed by post-publication peer review to be unrelated to the article. The Editors also deserve to take some blame for that, by not identifying this - something they could have done had they screened the paper properly prior to acceptance - during peer review. ,