Retraction Note Open Access
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 27, 2022; 14(7): 1528-1529
Published online Jul 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i7.1528
Retraction Note: Screening and identification of bioactive compounds from citrus against non-structural protein 3 protease of hepatitis C virus genotype 3a by fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay and mass spectrometry
Mahim Khan, Waqar Rauf, Fazal-E- Habib, Moazur Rahman, Mazhar Iqbal, Health Biotechnology Division, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad 38000, Punjab, Pakistan
ORCID number: Mahim Khan (0000-0003-3641-083X); Waqar Rauf (0000-0003-2853-3493); Fazal-E- Habib (0000-0002-4587-0312); Moazur Rahman (0000-0003-2892-1250); Mazhar Iqbal (0000-0002-8675-1125).
Author contributions: Khan M wrote this retraction note.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mazhar Iqbal, PhD, Professor, Health Biotechnology Division, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Jhang Road, Faisalabad 38000, Punjab, Pakistan. hamzamgondal@gmail.com
Received: November 2, 2021
Peer-review started: November 2, 2021
First decision: December 27, 2021
Revised: January 7, 2022
Accepted: March 16, 2022
Article in press: March 16, 2022
Published online: July 27, 2022
Processing time: 266 Days and 23.6 Hours

Abstract

Retraction note: Khan M, Rauf W, Habib F, Rahman M, Iqbal M. Screening and identification of bioactive compounds from citrus against non-structural protein 3 protease of hepatitis C virus genotype 3a by fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay and mass spectrometry. World J Hepatol 2020; 12(11): 976-992 PMID: 33312423 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v12.i11.976. The online version of the original article can be found at https://www.wjgnet.com/1948-5182/full/v12/i11/976.htm.

Key Words: Non-structural protein 3; Hepatitis C virus; Genotype 3a; Fluorescence resonance energy transfer

Core Tip: We have decided to retract the above article for further consideration due to some misunderstandings in communication.



TO THE EDITOR

In this manuscript, actually our study focus was to develop fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay through expression of non-structural protein 3/4a (NS3/4A) protease of HCV genotype 3a, followed by the evaluation of extract and targeted pure natural products. However, we mistakenly used the expression vector that contains co-factor NS4A from genotype 1a. But whole story was built and described on the use of NS4A sequence/expression vector from the genotype 3a. The amino acid sequences of NS4A of the genotype 1a (KKGSVVIVGRIVLSGK) is significantly different from the genotype 3a (KKGCVVIVGHIELGK) that lead to the variation in the activity of NS3/4A protease[1].

We checked NS3/4A activity with co-factors from both genotypes (1a and 3a) and found a clear variation in the proteolytic activity of NS3 protease when fused to its respective co-factor NS4A. As mentioned earlier, in the published manuscript, by mistake we supplemented the full-length NS3 and NS4A-fused NS3 protease with a peptide derived from the NS4A of a genotype 1a virus that led to wrong interpretation and conclusion. Now we found that NS4A of a genotype 3a virus is really compatible with NS3 protease (3a) and exhibited much higher protease activity than the NS4A of a genotype 1a virus. Subsequently, this led to difference in the inhibitory concentration values of inhibitors (extracts and natural products) screened through the FRET assay. This significant variation in the activity assay has altered the downstream inhibitory activities of extracts and natural products. Regrettably, this situation has forced us to retract our paper[2] to conduct more experimentation and make the major correction in data, before we can consider its rewriting and publication.

Footnotes

Provenance and peer review: Unsolicited article; Externally peer reviewed.

Peer-review model: Single blind

Corresponding Author's Membership in Professional Societies: The American Chemical Society, 30176895.

Specialty type: Chemistry, medicinal

Country/Territory of origin: Pakistan

Peer-review report’s scientific quality classification

Grade A (Excellent): 0

Grade B (Very good): B

Grade C (Good): C

Grade D (Fair): 0

Grade E (Poor): 0

P-Reviewer: Chen X, China; Sira AM, Egypt S-Editor: Xing YX L-Editor: A P-Editor: Xing YX

References
1.  Beyer BM, Zhang R, Hong Z, Madison V, Malcolm BA. Effect of naturally occurring active site mutations on hepatitis C virus NS3 protease specificity. Proteins. 2001;43:82-88.  [PubMed]  [DOI]  [Cited in This Article: ]
2.  Khan M, Rauf W, Habib F, Rahman M, Iqbal M. Screening and identification of bioactive compounds from citrus against non-structural protein 3 protease of hepatitis C virus genotype 3a by fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay and mass spectrometry. World J Hepatol. 2020;12:976-992.  [PubMed]  [DOI]  [Cited in This Article: ]  [Cited by in Crossref: 4]  [Cited by in F6Publishing: 3]  [Article Influence: 0.8]  [Reference Citation Analysis (2)]