RETRACTED: Awan et al. The Enhanced Cytotoxic and Pro-Apoptotic Effects of Optimized Simvastatin-Loaded Emulsomes on MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells. Pharmaceutics 2020, 12, 597
by
, , , , , , , ,
Zuhier A. Awan
1
,
Usama A. Fahmy
2,3,
Shaimaa M. Badr-Eldin
2,4,
Tarek S. Ibrahim
5,
Hani Z. Asfour
6,
Mohammed W. Al-Rabia
6,
Anas Alfarsi
2,
Nabil A. Alhakamy
2,3,7,8,
Wesam H. Abdulaal
9,
Hadeel Al Sadoun
10,
Nawal Helmi
11,12,
Ahmad O. Noor
13,
Filippo Caraci
14,15,
Diena M. Almasri
13 and
Giuseppe Caruso
14,*
1
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
3
Advanced Drug Delivery Research Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
4
Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo 11562, Egypt
5
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
6
Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
7
Center of Excellence for Drug Research and Pharmaceutical Industries, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
8
King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
9
Department of Biochemistry, Cancer Metabolism and Epigenetic Unit, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
10
Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
11
Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Jeddah, Jeddah 21959, Saudi Arabia
12
Department of Biochemistry, College of Sciences, University of Jeddah, Jeddah 21959, Saudi Arabia
13
Pharmacy Practice Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
14
Oasi Research Institute—IRCCS, Via Conte Ruggero, 73, 94018 Troina, EN, Italy
15
Department of Drug Sciences, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Pharmaceutics 2024, 16(2), 191; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics16020191
Submission received: 15 January 2024
/
Accepted: 16 January 2024
/
Published: 29 January 2024
The journal retracts the article, “The Enhanced Cytotoxic and Pro-Apoptotic Effects of Optimized Simvastatin-Loaded Emulsomes on MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells” [1], cited above.
Following publication, concerns were brought to the attention of the publisher regarding a range of image issues.
Adhering to our complaint’s procedure, an investigation was conducted by the Editorial Office and the Editorial Board that confirmed the presence of Figure 4 in two prior publications [2,3]. Furthermore, Figure 8 (panel B) was also confirmed to be similar to some images from other publications [4,5,6,7,8,9], and Figure 7A,B is similar to the images from another paper [7].
While the authors fully cooperated with the Editorial Office during the investigation, they were unable to satisfactorily explain the similarity of the figures presenting different experimental conditions, nor meet the required quality standards of raw images in order to consider a correction, as per the journals original image requirements policy (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmaceutics/instruc-tions#oriimages). As a result, the Editorial Board and EIC were unable to confirm the reliability of the findings and subsequently decided to retract this paper.
This retraction was approved by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Pharmaceutics.
The authors did not agree to this retraction.
References
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MDPI and ACS Style
Awan, Z.A.; Fahmy, U.A.; Badr-Eldin, S.M.; Ibrahim, T.S.; Asfour, H.Z.; Al-Rabia, M.W.; Alfarsi, A.; Alhakamy, N.A.; Abdulaal, W.H.; Al Sadoun, H.; et al. RETRACTED: Awan et al. The Enhanced Cytotoxic and Pro-Apoptotic Effects of Optimized Simvastatin-Loaded Emulsomes on MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells. Pharmaceutics 2020, 12, 597. Pharmaceutics 2024, 16, 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics16020191
AMA Style
Awan ZA, Fahmy UA, Badr-Eldin SM, Ibrahim TS, Asfour HZ, Al-Rabia MW, Alfarsi A, Alhakamy NA, Abdulaal WH, Al Sadoun H, et al. RETRACTED: Awan et al. The Enhanced Cytotoxic and Pro-Apoptotic Effects of Optimized Simvastatin-Loaded Emulsomes on MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells. Pharmaceutics 2020, 12, 597. Pharmaceutics. 2024; 16(2):191. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics16020191
Chicago/Turabian StyleAwan, Zuhier A., Usama A. Fahmy, Shaimaa M. Badr-Eldin, Tarek S. Ibrahim, Hani Z. Asfour, Mohammed W. Al-Rabia, Anas Alfarsi, Nabil A. Alhakamy, Wesam H. Abdulaal, Hadeel Al Sadoun, and et al. 2024. "RETRACTED: Awan et al. The Enhanced Cytotoxic and Pro-Apoptotic Effects of Optimized Simvastatin-Loaded Emulsomes on MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells. Pharmaceutics 2020, 12, 597" Pharmaceutics 16, no. 2: 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics16020191
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