RETRACTED: IP1867B suppresses the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) ablating epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor resistance in adult high grade gliomas.

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief due to concerns regarding the legitimacy of images and data presented in the paper. Though a corrigendum (Can. Lett. Vol. 469, 2020, pages 524-535) was previously published to address some of these concerns, this corrigendum has also been found to contain errors and therefore cannot stand. Specific concerns are listed below. The Editor and Publisher received a letter from the University of Portsmouth alerting us to an investigation into alleged research misconduct. The University concluded their investigation with external experts and determined that misconduct did take place in relation to the research involved in this paper. Upon our separate investigation, it has been determined that the paper headline relies on showing that there was considerable reduction of IGF1R, IL6R and EGFR post treatment in all cell lines. During review, it was determined that this cannot be concluded from the presented data. For example, in SEBTA-003 the EGFR levels go up and there is no difference in IGFR1. It is apparent from Fig 4d that in the SEBTA-003 cell line the EGFR level does not go down, which is stated in the Results section on page 32, it is rather going up. The data for IGFR1 are inconclusive and there are concerns regarding the blot. The general implications would be that the effects of the drug IP1867B does not seem to be the same for all tested cell lines, and this should have been discussed in detail by the authors. Additionally, in subsequent experiments (Fig. 4g and h) the SEBTA-003 cell line (no reduction of EGFR, rather increased expression) and the other 3 cell lines (reduction of EGFR) show similar responses. This is particularly evident in Fig. 4g: Two cell lines are compared, SEBTA-003 (increased EGFR expression) and UP-029 (decreased EGFR expression), both behave similarly after exposure to drugs. The corrigendum (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2019.10.002) issue is with respect to the Supplemental Figure 6i EGFR, particularly panel IP1867B. The Corrigendum states that the left part is a cut out of the very right part. If so, the bands for IP1867B should show the same staining pattern - but they do not. Also, in the Corrigendum, there are incorrect mentions between day 14 in the Figure and day 19 in the Figure legend. All authors were informed of the retraction in advance. Drs. Pritchard and Duckworth agreed to the retraction. The corresponding author, Dr Hill, did not agree to the retraction. No response had been received from Drs. Mihajluk, Simms, Reay, Madureira, Howarth, Murray, Nasser and Pilkinton at the time of the retraction being published.

An electro-active system of immuno-assay (EASI assay) utilising self assembled monolayer modified electrodes.

Most immunoassays currently rely on optical methods for signal generation e.g. in ELISA and rapid assay formats. It has become apparent as in the Glucose sensor market that there is a need for simple direct electrical immuno-sensors. We have investigated the novel use of organic conducting monolayers used as a direct electrochemical detection support for an immuno-reaction. It was found that antibodies raised to a carbazole dimer monolayer could increase the charge movement across that monolayer surface. Antibody fragments were taken from a specific anti-carbazole antibody fragment library and combined with an antibody fragment directed to the hormone estrone 3 glucuronide (E3G), the target antigen to form a bispecific antibody fragment. The device utilised these specific antibody fragments and incorporated them on the top plate of a capillary fill format as the immuno-assay components. The immuno-reaction utilised a competition assay. Free E3G analyte in the sample displaced the bispecific antibody fragment from the immuno-surface leaving it free to bind the carbazole monolayer surface. There the binding was detected using amperometric or coulometric methods. By combining all there element it was possible to develop a sensitive immuno-assay that could detect E3G in a reproducible calibrated fashion down to 10 ng/ml.