A multiple myeloma specialist “recklessly“ falsified data in at least 10 published articles, according to a joint investigation by the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.
The institutions found Alan Lichtenstein, a former staff physician at the VA, committed research misconduct by reusing images “to falsely represent the results” related to 26 pairs of experiments, according to a notice published in the Federal Register.
At least one of the sets of images in each of the pairs “is inaccurate,” the notice stated. The institutions found Lichtenstein had falsified data in “at least ten” of the 13 articles in which the images appeared, perhaps because the investigators could not determine which images, if any, were original.
Lichtenstein has received more than $10 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, and was also previously a professor of medicine in residence at UCLA Medical School, according to an online biosketch. He did not respond to our request for comment sent to his VA email address, which did not bounce.
The VA banned Lichtenstein from conducting research for the department for at least two years, and called for notifying the journals where the tainted articles appeared of the misconduct findings.
Lichtenstein did not appeal the findings or corrective actions, according to the Federal Register notice.
The reused images appeared in the following 13 published papers dating back to 2003, three of which have been retracted:
- “Cytotoxic properties of a DEPTOR-mTOR inhibitor in multiple myeloma cells,”Cancer Research, 2016 (20 citations, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science)
- “DEPTOR is linked to a TORC1-p21 survival proliferation pathway in multiple myeloma,” Genes & Cancer, 2014 (not indexed in Web of Science)
- “Interleukin-6 activates phosphoinositol-3 kinase in multiple myeloma tumor cells by signaling through RAS-dependent and, separately, through p85-dependent pathways,” Oncogene, 2004 (46 citations)
- “MNK1-induced eIF-4E phosphorylation in myeloma cells: a pathway mediating IL-6-induced expansion and expression of genes involved in metabolic and proteotoxic responses,” PLoS One, 2014 (10 citations; none after the 2023 retraction)
- “Mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors activate the AKT kinase in multiple myeloma cells by up-regulating the insulin-like growth factor receptor/insulin receptor substrate-1/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase cascade,” Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, 2005 (287 citations)
- “Inhibition of SAPK2/p38 enhances sensitivity to mTORC1 inhibition by blocking IRES-mediated translation initiation in glioblastoma,” Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, 2011 (18 citations)
- “Specific blockade of Rictor-mTOR association inhibits mTORC2 activity and is cytotoxic in glioblastoma,” PLoS One, 2017 (63 citations; 54 after a 2019 correction, 8 after a 2023 retraction)
- “MNK kinases facilitate c-myc IRES activity in rapamycin-treated multiple myeloma,” Oncogene, 2013 (21 citations; 2 after the 2023 expression of concern)
- “The PP242 mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor activates extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in multiple myeloma cells via a target of rapamycin complex 1 (TORC1)/eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF-4E)/RAF pathway and activation is a mechanism of resistance,” Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2012 (66 citations)
- “Therapeutic potential of targeting IRES-dependent c-myc translation in multiple myeloma cells during ER stress,” Oncogene, 2016 (58 citations; three after the 2023 retraction)
- “SGK kinase activity in multiple myeloma cells protects against ER stress apoptosis via a SEK-dependent mechanism,” Molecular Cancer Research, 2016 (10 citations)
- “A novel therapeutic induces DEPTOR degradation in multiple myeloma cells with resulting tumor cytotoxicity,” Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, 2019 (7 citations)
- “Downstream effectors of oncogenic ras in multiple myeloma cells,” Blood, 2003 (116 citations)
PubPeer users posted comments identifying similarities between images in a few of Lichtenstein’s papers beginning in April 2020.
Three years later, in April of 2023, scientific sleuth Kevin Patrick found similarities in images in another paper, which he reported on PubPeer, as well as to the journal, the VA, and UCLA. He went on to identify many more similarities in additional papers.
Given the scale of the findings, “if the only penalty was a 2 year suspension, this does not sound severe enough to serve as a deterrent for people considering bad research practices,“ Patrick said.
Three papers have been retracted so far, but Patrick thinks other concerns that he flagged are ”hard to explain as an accident” and ”should probably lead the journals to retract the paper.” As an example, he cited the 2012 Journal of Biological Chemistry paper in the VA’s findings.
The pair of retractions in PLOS ONE both appeared on Sept. 8, 2023, and list image similarities identified on PubPeer. The authors could not provide original data for either article, the notices state, so the editors decided to retract the articles. Lichtenstein was one of the authors who “either did not respond directly or could not be reached,” the notices stated, despite being the corresponding author of one of the papers.
The retraction notice to the 2016 Oncogene article, dated Aug. 31, 2023, lists all the concerns called out on PubPeer a few months prior, even using some of the same language. The authors were unable to provide raw data, according to the notice, and the journal’s editors “no longer have confidence in the integrity of the data in this article.” Lichtenstein did not respond to correspondence about the retraction, the notice stated.
A press release from UCLA on the publication of the 2016 Oncogene article claimed the scientists had discovered a “first-of-its-kind experimental treatment” for multiple myeloma. The release quoted Lichtenstein: “Though this research is only in the preliminary phases, we hope that it will eventually lead to human clinical trials and the development of new treatments for this devastating disease.”
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