The above article, published online on December 01, 2025 in Exploration of Neuroscience (https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/en), has been retracted by agreement between the Editor-in-Chief, Dirk M. Hermann, and the editorial team. This retraction was made at the authors’ request due to certain figures and references not providing sufficient evidence to substantiate the content.

The specific concerns uncovered are detailed below:

1. Unsupported claim in Figure 1D:

The statement regarding “disease relevance of UBL3-mediated sorting”, which describes α-synuclein (Parkinson’s disease model) and mutant huntingtin (mHTT; Huntington’s disease model) being sorted into small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) via UBL3 modification, lacks supporting evidence. No citation was provided for this claim, and no such evidence currently exists in the published literature.

2. Reference inconsistencies in the main text:

Some statements in the manuscript were not fully supported by the cited references. For example, the statement “Recent studies have further characterized UBL3’s role in neurodegenerative protein trafficking, demonstrating its involvement in cellular stress responses and protein quality control [71]” is not substantiated by the cited source.

To preserve the integrity and reliability of the scientific record, the authors and the journal have concurred that retraction of the article is the appropriate course of action.