Retraction Note: J Transl Med (2019) 17:190 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-019-1932-1

The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article because authors were unable to provide evidence for ethics approval prior to commencing this study.

In addition, co-author Beihua Kong stated that his name was added to the article without his knowledge and that he was neither aware of any contents of the article, nor the submission process. He also stated the email address provided on submission was not his email address, and that he did not sign any authorship form submitted to the journal.

Author Beihua Kong agrees with this retraction. Author Peihai Zhang stated on behalf of remaining co-authors that they do not agree to this retraction.