COPD paper in JCI retracted following PubPeer critiques
by Ivan Oransky
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A 2011 paper in the Journal of Clinical Investigation whose PubPeer entry we highlighted in September has been retracted.
Here's the notice for Denitrosylation of HDAC2 by targeting Nrf2 restores glucocorticosteroid sensitivity in macrophages from COPD patients, a 2011 paper by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Imperial College:
The JCI, with the agreement of the corresponding authors and coauthors, is retracting the article "Denitrosylation of HDAC2 by targeting Nrf2 restores glucocorticosteroid sensitivity in macrophages from COPD patients." The IP: streptavidin/IB: anti-HDAC2 immunoblot panel in Figure 3B was recently identified as an inverted image of the right four lanes of the anti-H4 acetyl CHIP gel presented in Figure 2A. Additionally, the IP: anti-streptavidin/IB: anti-DDK immunoblot presented in Supplemental Figure 3A was identified as an inverted image of the left four lanes of the anti-H4 acetyl CHIP gel presented in Figure 2A. Further, in Figure 9B, the incorrect anti-HDAC2 immunoblot was presented. The authors sincerely apologize for any misinterpretation of the data as a result of these errors.
Among other issues, PubPeer commenters had pointed out, consistent with the notice, that: Figure 2A (top panel, right part (CSC)) is the same figure as shown in Fig 3B top panel. The paper has been cited 43 times, according to Thomson Scientific's Web of Knowledge.
The second-to-last author of the paper, Peter Barnes, was at one point one of the 50 most highly-cited scientists in the world. He retracted four papers in 2011 because of data concerns. Those papers' first author was Edward Erin, an allergy researcher who, in addition to scientific misconduct, was convicted in 2009 of trying to poison a mistress in order to induce an abortion. Other papers involving Erin and Barnes were later cleared.