Following the publication of this article, the corresponding author made PLOS aware that the Ethics statement in the Methods section of [ 1 ] is incorrect and that the work reported in [ 1 ] was not supported by a valid protocol approval. A representative of Merrimack College stated that a valid Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approved protocol covering the experiments in [ 1 ] does not exist, that approval from an external IACUC was not sought, and therefore that the Ethics statement in the Methods section of [ 1 ] is falsified. In light of the above concerns about adherence to PLOS’ policy on Animal Research, the PLOS One Editors retract this article.
The author did not respond to the final editorial decision.