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Retraction: Enhanced activity of vancomycin by encapsulation in hybrid magnetic nanoparticles conjugated to a cell-penetrating peptide
Wenjie
Zhang
a,
Reza
Taheri-Ledari
b,
Zoleikha
Hajizadeh
b,
Ehsan
Zolfaghari
b,
Mohammad Reza
Ahghari
b,
Ali
Maleki
*b,
Michael R.
Hamblin
*cde and
Ye
Tian
*f
aDepartment of Nuclear Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37, Guoxue Alley, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, P.R. China
bCatalysts and Organic Synthesis Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran 16846-13114, Iran. E-mail: maleki@iust.ac.ir
cWellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
dDepartment of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. E-mail: hamblin@helix.mgh.harvard.edu
eLaser Research Centre, Faculty of Health Science, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein 2028, South Africa
fState Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Department of Orthodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, No. 14, 3rd section of South Renmin Road, Chengdu 610041, P.R. China. E-mail: tianye@scu.edu.cn
First published on 29th October 2024
Abstract
Retraction of ‘Enhanced activity of vancomycin by encapsulation in hybrid magnetic nanoparticles conjugated to a cell-penetrating peptide’ by Wenjie Zhang et al., Nanoscale, 2020, 12, 3855–3870, https://doi.org/10.1039/C9NR09687F.
The Royal Society of Chemistry, with agreement of the authors as indicated below, hereby retracts this Nanoscale article due to concerns with the reliability of the data.
Fig. 5c overlaps with Fig. 6a in R. Taheri-Ledari et al., RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 40055–40067, DOI: 10.1039/D0RA07986C and Fig. 2a in a previously retracted article (R. Taheri-Ledari et al., RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 40348–40356).
Fig. 12 panels ‘S. aureus/30 min’, ‘MCCC@VAN/30 min’, ‘S. aureus/uptake/30 min’ and ‘E. coli/uptake/60 min’ share similarities with Fig. 7 in another publication by a different group of authors (M. Khodabakhshi et al., RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 38961–38976).
The TEM image in Fig. S5(a) contains repeating patterns and image irregularities which is indicative of manipulation. Fig. S5c also contains repeating patterns.
The authors state that they outsourced the TEM experiments and subsequently no longer have the original images. The replacement data that were provided by the authors was significantly different to the initial images.
Given the significance of the concerns about the validity of the data in the article, the findings presented in this paper are not reliable.
Signed: Mohammad Reza Ahghari, Zoleikha Hajizadeh, Reza Taheri-Ledari, Ehsan Zolfaghari
Ye Tian and Wenjie Zhang agree with the decision to retract this article but do not agree with the wording of the retraction notice.
Ali Maleki disagrees with the retraction.
Michael R. Hamblin has not responded.
Date: 11th October 2024
Retraction endorsed by Heather Montgomery, Managing Editor, Nanoscale
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