Retraction Note - Circular RNA circDCUN1D4 suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma development via targeting the miR-590-5p/ TIMP3 axis

Sep 29, 2026

Retraction Note for the open access article titled “Circular RNA circDCUN1D4 suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma development via targeting the miR-590-5p/ TIMP3 axis”. The Editor-in-Chief retracts the paper after identifying evidence of image irregularities: overlapping sub-images in Figs. 4, S3, S4, S6, and S7. The editor states findings are not confident; authors confirm and agree to the retraction, with one author reporting no involvement in experimental design or submission.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Retraction Notice

Reasons for Retraction

Author Statements and Agreement

Li et al. Molecular Cancer (2026) 25:4 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-025-02550-0](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-025-02550-0) RETRACTION NOTE Open Access Retraction Note: Circular RNA circDCUN1D4 suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma development via targeting the miR-590-5p/ TIMP3 axis Hongyu Li1,2*, Bing Su1, Yan Jiang3, Boyang Zhang2, Rulong Du2, Can Song2, Bin Hou2, Kun Xu1, Lida Wu2 and Yuchun Gu2,4 Retraction Note: Molecular Cancer 24, 95 (2025) [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-025-02300-2](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-025-02300-2) [The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article due to evi-](The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article due to evi-)[dence of several image irregularities. Specifically](dence of several image irregularities. Specifically), images in Figs. 4, S3, S4, S6, and S7 were identified by authors to have overlapping sub-images. Hence, the Editor-inChief is not confident about the findings of this paper. K Xu has stated that he was not involved in the experimental design or implementation and was unaware of the submission. Kun Xu agrees with this retraction. Hongyu Li has stated on behalf of all the other authors that they agree with the retraction. The original article can be found online at [https://doi.org/10.1186/s1](https://doi.org/10.1186/s1)[ ](https://doi.org/10.1186/s1)[2943-025-02300-2](2943-025-02300-2.)[.](2943-025-02300-2.) *Correspondence: Hongyu Li[leinade123@126.com](leinade123@126.com) 1College of Chemistry and Lie Science, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China 2Allife Medical Science and Technology Co., Ltd. Economic and Technological Development Zone, Beijing 100176, China 3Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University), Chongqing 400038, China 4Molecular Pharmacology Laboratory, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China © The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creati](http://creati)[vecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/](vecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)[.](vecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

FAQs

Who retracted the article and why?

The Editor-in-Chief retracted the article due to evidence of several image irregularities, including overlapping sub-images in multiple figures (Figs. 4 and S3, S4, S6, S7).

What specific data issues were reported?

The retraction notice states that authors identified overlapping sub-images in the listed figures, leading the editor to lack confidence in the paper’s findings.

How did the authors respond to the retraction?

Kun Xu and Hongyu Li (on behalf of the other authors) agreed with the retraction. The notice also states that K Xu was not involved in experimental design or implementation and was unaware of the submission.

Sep 29, 2026

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