Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs containing 18–24 nucleotides that are involved in the regulation of many biochemical mechanisms in the human body. The level of miRNAs in body fluids and tissues increases because of altered pathophysiological mechanisms, thus they are employed as biomarkers for various diseases and conditions. In recent years, miRNAs obtained a great interest in many fields of forensic medicine given their stability and specificity. Several specific miRNAs have been studied in body fluid identification, in wound vitality in time of death determination, in drowning, in the anti-doping field, and other forensic fields. However, the major problems are (1) lack of universal protocols for diagnostic expression testing and (2) low reproducibility of independent studies. This review is an update on the application of these molecular markers in forensic biology.
Highlights
In recent years, RNA profiling has undergone enormous development in various fields of forensic science, such as identification of body fluid, wound age determination, and post-mortem interval (PMI) assessment [1,2,3]
A more recent study reported seven erythroid-related miRNAs to be upregulated after ABT, while haematological parameters showed moderate changes [130]. These results suggest that autologous blood transfusion may determine an increase of some circulating miRNAs, which could be used as anti-doping biomarkers
MiRNA profiling acquired an increasing interest among clinicians and researchers, both in diagnostic and therapeutic fields, and it has been explored in the forensic field
Summary
RNA profiling has undergone enormous development in various fields of forensic science, such as identification of body fluid, wound age determination, and post-mortem interval (PMI) assessment [1,2,3]. Blood, saliva, menstrual blood, and vaginal secretion) with qRT-PCR They identified a panel of nine differentially expressed miRNAs with a high degree of specificity in each body fluids. The authors proposed a decision algorithm to detect each body fluids employing few markers to simplify the analysis: miR-891a-5p for semen identification, miR-144-3p to discriminate blood from non-blood samples, miR-144-3p and miR-203a-3p to distinguish between venous and menstrual blood, miR-203a-3p and miR-124-3p to differentiate between saliva and vaginal secretions [41]. The authors identified six candidate miRNAs (miR-200b, miR-1246, miR320c, miR-10b-5p miR-26b and miR-891a) and two suitable internal controls (let-7g and let-7i) for data normalization They proposed a miRNA panel for BFID: miR-200b could distinguish venous and menstrual blood from the other body fluids while miR-1246 could separate venous from menstrual blood. The authors found increased levels of miR125a-5p and miR125b-5p, two miRNAs involved in the inflammatory phase of wound healing, and increased levels of miR92a-3p, miR128-3p, miR130a-3p (miRNAs with an anti-inflammatory role) compared to control skin samples [78]
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