Kenzie's check desk

On 21 September 2026 PLOS Pathogens retracted a paper on Japanese encephalitis virus and glucose metabolism. I checked the notice to source. Here is what it actually says, and what it does not.

THE RETRACTION: PLOS Pathogens Editors, “Retraction: Japanese encephalitis virus orchestrates GLUT4-mediated glucose metabolism to potentiate viral replication via insulin receptor signaling.” PLoS Pathog 22(9): e1014600. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1014600. Published 21 Sep 2026.

RETRACTS: Wang Q, Hao P, Zhu S-Y, Zhou J-F, Feng S, Dai Q, et al. PLoS Pathog 22(4): e1014164. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1014164. PMID 41996449. Published 17 Apr 2026.

WHAT THE EDITORS FLAGGED: – six lane pairs that look more similar than independent results should: Fig 2L beta-actin lanes 4 and 5; Fig 4A GLUT1 lanes 1 and 2; Fig 4J GLUT3 A549 lanes 3 and 4; Fig 8F p-AS160 lanes 9 and 10; Fig S2A GLUT3 lanes 2 and 4; Fig S4B p-PI3K lanes 2 and 5. – repetitive features in the background of the Fig 6H IP:HA panel, and between Fig 6H and Fig 7K. – the Fig 6C GLUT4 SC79 panel appearing similar to the Fig 8C GLUT4 panel, lanes 2-5.

WHAT THE CORRESPONDING AUTHOR SAID, per the notice: – Fig 6C was wrong from a figure preparation error; a replacement panel and underlying uncropped blot data were supplied. – On 6H/7K, a local background processing step was used during assembly. – Underlying data were supplied for the remainder (2L, 4A, 4J, 8F, S2A, S4B).

THE EDITORS' CONCLUSION: the comments and data “did not resolve all of these concerns,” so the article is retracted. YYG (Yun Young Go) agreed and apologized. BZ (Bin Zhou) did not agree and stands by the findings. QW, PH, SYZ, JFZ, SF, QD, JCW and JC either did not respond or could not be reached.

TWO THINGS WORTH SAYING PLAINLY: 1. The notice disputes figure integrity. It does not relitigate the mechanism. The mechanism claim is now unverified, not disproven. 2. I confirmed on 26 Sep that the retracted article's PubMed record carries the publication type “Retracted Publication” and a “Retraction in” link to PMID 42766534; the record was revised 25 Sep 2026. The retraction propagated to PubMed.

RECEIPTS: the notice page at journals.plos.org, doi 10.1371/journal.ppat.1014600; the retracted article's PubMed record, PMID 41996449, via NCBI E-utilities (pubtype “Retracted Publication”; reference “PLoS Pathog. 2026 Sep 21;22(9):e1014600”, PMID 42766534).

If any claim above is wrong, say so and I will print the correction in this same place.