Analysis of amino acid enantiomers from aged fingerprints

Helmond, Ward van; Weening, Maarten; Vleer, Vonne; Puit, Marcel de

doi:10.1039/d0ay00096e

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…Another chemical change that is being evaluated for dating purposes is racemization of amino acids (van Helmond, Weening, Vleer, & de Puit, 2020). In this approach the progressive, naturally occurring conversion of the l ‐stereoisomer of the amino acid into the d ‐stereoisomer was explored for a series of amino acids (histidine, serine, threonine, alanine, proline, methionine, and valine).…”

Section: Utilization Of Chemical Changes In Fingermarks For Dating Purposesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The forensic exploitation of fingermark chemistry: A review

Bleay

Bailey

Croxton

et al. 2020

WIREs Forensic Science

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The substances deposited from the fingertip onto a surface during contact between them represent a highly complex range of chemicals that can be exploited in a variety of ways in a forensic investigation. An overview is given of the multitude of chemicals that have been detected in fingermarks, including those occurring in endogenous sweat, metabolites of ingested substances, and exogenous substances picked up on the fingertip. Changes in chemistry that may occur between deposition of the fingermark and its subsequent forensic analysis are discussed, with particular reference to the ways in which these changes have been considered as a means of dating fingermarks. The ways in which fingermark enhancement reagents utilize the different chemicals present to reveal ridge is reviewed, together with how different classes of chemical can be sequentially targeted to optimize the number of fingermarks recovered.A field of increasing interest is the use of advanced analytical techniques incorporating mass spectrometry and imaging capability to simultaneously obtain additional contextual information about the donor of the mark while visualizing the fingermark ridge pattern. Examples are given of how such information can be applied in forensic investigations. It is concluded that an extensive "tool kit" of fingermark enhancement processes is already available to utilize the different chemicals present, and the advances that can be made in this field using conventional approaches are limited. There is, instead, significant potential to utilize analytical techniques to forensically exploit the chemical information within fingermarks but there are also significant barriers to their implementation in this way.

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Section: Utilization Of Chemical Changes In Fingermarks For Dating Purposesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The forensic exploitation of fingermark chemistry: A review

Bleay

Bailey

Croxton

et al. 2020

WIREs Forensic Science

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“…Most of all, as an unbiased surface MS technique, MALDI-MS can simultaneously detect other fingerprint chemicals and their images without the necessity for solvent extraction in GC–MS or LC–MS. Most chemical-based TSD methods are required to control absolute deposition amount, ,, whereas our approach is based on the relative abundance of TGs with saturated TGs as an internal standard. Finally, fingerprint lipids are expected to be more robust aging markers than amino acids, water content, or others as they are resistant to evaporation or other losses and are highly abundant in latent fingerprints. ,,, …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most recently, scanning electrochemical microscopy is used to estimate TSD by monitoring lipid oxide degradation combined with physical ridge pattern analysis . In most of these studies, however, the amount of deposited fingerprints had to be controlled, again limiting the applicability to forensic investigations …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some promising results demonstrate that the rapid decay of squalene was useful in distinguishing fresh from a few days old fingerprints in GC–MS , and LC–MS analysis. It has also been demonstrated that the d -serine enantiomer ratio shows a gradual increase over a few months period . Further, the fluorescence ratio of Tryp to fluorescent oxidation product is used to estimate the TSD of fingerprints for a few weeks period .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Predicting Fingerprint Age Based on Ozonolysis Kinetics of Unsaturated Triacylglycerol Degradation

Patten,

Paulson,

Forsman

et al. 2023

Anal. Chem.

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Answering the question, “How old is a fingerprint?”, is a highly sought-after aim in forensic science. Despite several decades of studies to find an empirical correlation in fingerprint aging, there has been no reliable method so far. In this study, we attempt to determine the time since deposition (TSD) of aged fingerprints from the chemical profile captured within a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry data set. Our approach is based on the chemical kinetics associated with the ambient ozonolysis of unsaturated triacylglycerols (TGs), a major component in fingerprint lipids. First, ozone concentration and ambient temperature were determined to be the major factors in the degradation of unsaturated TGs. A simple kinetics model is then developed to describe the decay of unsaturated TGs, dictated only by the temperature and ozone concentration. This model is then applied to the degradation of TGs in a mixture of TG standards and multiple individuals’ fingerprints. The overall decay of unsaturated TGs follows the pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics, validating our hypothesis; however, there are significant person-to-person variations in the initial abundance of unsaturated TGs and the decay rate, hampering the accurate prediction of TSD unless they are corrected for each individual. Nevertheless, the model’s applicability for ambient fingerprint aging data was successfully demonstrated.

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“…Fingermark aging – Brief overview of the studies aiming at monitoring the evolution with time of the fingermark composition, to identify aging markers: use of chemical assays based on amino acids [ 152 ]; demonstration that the fingermark quality cannot be used as an aging marker when fingermarks are exposed to heat for a prolonged period of time (i.e., light bulbs powered for up to 672 h) [ 153 ]; evolution of ridge width [ 154 ] and colour contrast metric [ 155 ] from powder-dusted fingermarks; use of μ-FTIR combined with chemometric tools [ 156 ]; evolution of triglycerides (triacylglycerols) with time and better comprehension of the ozonolysis-driven degradation pathway [ 157 , 158 ]; degradation of squalene and cholesterol upon exposure to temperatures ranging from −20°C to 100°C [ 159 ]; consideration of amino acid racemization, more particularly the enantiomeric ratio of D/ l -serine, as aging marker [ 160 ]; evolution of fatty acids over a 30-day-aging period and consequences on detection techniques (i.e., powder dusting, iodine and silver nitrate) [ 161 ]. It should be noted that most of these above-cited studies considered sebum-rich fingermarks.…”

Section: Fingermark Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%