Fabrication Allegations in 'Oncolytic peptide LTX-315 plus an anti-CTLA-4 antibody induces a synergistic anti-cancer immune response in residual tumors after radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma' (Cell Death and Disease, 2025)

Academic fraud report · Geng Detector

Summary

Verdict: Confirmed severe concerns (实锤). A peer-sourced 'Geng' integrity report flags three serious, mutually reinforcing issues in this 2025 Cell Death and Disease paper (DOI: 10.1038/s41419-025-07622-z) by Sun, Liu, Liu, Li, Zhang, Sun, Zheng and Kan. First, the Materials and Methods describe isolating CD8+ T cells with the 'CD8 T Cell Isolation Kit, Human' (Miltenyi Biotec, Cat. No. 130-096-495) although every in vitro and in vivo experiment uses murine C57BL/6 mice and Hepa1-6 cells — a cross-species reagent error inconsistent with valid methodology. Second, the authors state that Western blotting was used to assess ICD markers including ATP, CALR and HMGB1; ATP is a nucleotide, not a protein, and cannot be detected by Western blot, indicating fabrication of assay results. Third, the report alleges implausibly 'perfect' statistics across multiple comparison bar graphs, suggestive of data manipulation. These findings, if accurate, would constitute clear research misconduct. Confidence is high because the methodological errors are self-evident, but the report does not include raw blot images, raw statistical outputs or independent image-forensic verification.

Verdict

Confirmed severe integrity concerns (🔴 实锤) per the source 'Geng' report. The paper contains cross-species reagent misuse, a biologically impossible Western blot claim, and statistically suspect data presentation. Authors and journal should be alerted; an institutional investigation and raw-data audit are warranted.

Key findings

Cross-species reagent misuse (Methods): The CD8+ T-cell isolation step specifies the Miltenyi Biotec CD8 T Cell Isolation Kit, Human (Cat. No. 130-096-495), yet all experiments are performed in murine C57BL/6 mice and Hepa1-6 murine hepatocellular carcinoma cells. A human-specific kit is not validated for mouse CD8+ T cells.
Impossible Western blot assay: The text and figure legends for Figure 2, Figure 4 and Figure 6 state that Western blotting was used to quantify immunogenic cell death (ICD) markers, listing ATP, CALR and HMGB1. ATP is a nucleotide, not a protein, and cannot be measured by Western blot; ATP is typically quantified by luciferase-based assays or HPLC.
Implausibly 'perfect' statistics: Across Figures 1–8, bar-graph comparisons are reported to show uniformly significant and tidy results across many multiple-comparison tests, a pattern flagged as statistically improbable.

Evidence highlights

Direct quotation in Methods describing the use of the human CD8 T Cell Isolation Kit in a murine experimental system (Miltenyi Biotec, Cat. No. 130-096-495).
Explicit statement that 'Western blotting was used to assess the expression of ICD proteins (ATP, CALR, HMGB1)' accompanying band images in Figure 2, Figure 4 and Figure 6.
Authors: Bo Sun, Jiayun Liu, Xiaocui Liu, Jing Li, Guilin Zhang, Tao Sun, Chuansheng Zheng, Xuefeng Kan; Journal: Cell Death and Disease; DOI: 10.1038/s41419-025-07622-z; Year: 2025.

Notes

The allegations originate from a single Chinese-language 'Geng' (耿同学) community integrity report; independent image-forensic reanalysis (e.g., re-examination of raw Western blot images and statistical source files) has not yet been documented here.
The cross-species and ATP/Western blot issues are self-evident biological/methodological errors and do not require image forensics to assess.
Confidence: high for Findings 1 and 2; moderate for Finding 3, which would benefit from access to raw numerical data and exact p-values to confirm the alleged uniformity of significant results.
No retractions, editorial expressions of concern, or PubPeer entries are cited in the source report.