Degradation of human mRNA transcripts over time as an indicator of the time since deposition (TsD) in biological crime scene traces

Salzmann, Andrea Patrizia; Russo, Giancarlo; Kreutzer, Susanne; Haas, Cordula

doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2021.102524

Cited by 32 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…An approach that would be applicable to more body fluids than blood is based on differences in the degradation over time of distinct RNA molecules outside the human body. Determining relative expression ratios may allow inference of TSD, although robustness is not yet at the level needed for forensic casework [14][15][16][17][18][19]. Recently, microbes were explored for TSD purposes of saliva samples with some success, but the high inter-individual variation can surpass the time-dependent variation [20].…”

Section: Addressing Alternative Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Identification of Body Fluids and Tissues: A Crucial Link in the Investigation and Solution of Crime

Sijen

Harbison

2021

Genes

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Body fluid and body tissue identification are important in forensic science as they can provide key evidence in a criminal investigation and may assist the court in reaching conclusions. Establishing a link between identifying the fluid or tissue and the DNA profile adds further weight to this evidence. Many forensic laboratories retain techniques for the identification of biological fluids that have been widely used for some time. More recently, many different biomarkers and technologies have been proposed for identification of body fluids and tissues of forensic relevance some of which are now used in forensic casework. Here, we summarize the role of body fluid/ tissue identification in the evaluation of forensic evidence, describe how such evidence is detected at the crime scene and in the laboratory, elaborate different technologies available to do this, and reflect real life experiences. We explain how, by including this information, crucial links can be made to aid in the investigation and solution of crime.

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Section: Addressing Alternative Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alongside mRNA, small non-coding RNAs have generated significant interest [89] to date, which will be described in Section 7.1.1. RNA analysis has also been suggested for other forensic applications such as post mortem interval and age of a stain determination [17,19,90].…”

Section: Rna Markersmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Identification of Body Fluids and Tissues: A Crucial Link in the Investigation and Solution of Crime

Sijen

Harbison

2021

Genes

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“…Alternatively, TSD can be used to determine whether a bloodstain is relevant to the current investigation 1 . Bloodstain TSD is typically estimated by modelling the physicochemical degradation of blood biomolecules over time; experimental methodologies generating spectroscopic [7][8][9] , genetic [10][11][12] and photographic 13,14 metrics have been developed and used to estimate bloodstain TSD. Factors like individual variation, type of substrate and environmental conditions influence the timewise degradation of bloodstains and their biomolecules, resulting in large variability in the accuracy and precision of TSD estimation models 1,15,16 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, base-pairing is disrupted, leading to fragmentation and unstable molecules. However, shorter RNAs like mRNA and miRNA have been shown to persist for long periods in desiccated environments 12,20 , suggesting that the degradation means suggested above are biased towards larger fragments of nucleic acid. Although RNA might provide insight for long-term studies and complement the short-term degradation of hemoglobin, they have yet to be combined to estimate bloodstain TSD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Atomic force microscopy has investigated the changes in RBC physiology over time [51][52][53] while mass-spectrometry 54,55 , chromatography [56][57][58][59][60] and fluorescence spectroscopy [61][62][63] have measured changes in metabolites and protein composition of deposited bloodstains. DNA 38,39,[64][65][66][67] , total RNA, mRNA and miRNA [10][11][12][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80] degradation have also been targeted in longer time series. Recently, microbial profiling of bloodstains has described the timewise changes in microbial communities inhabiting the bloodstains 81,82 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The crux of time: A meta-analysis of ex vivo whole blood degradation

Elliott

Shafer

Stotesbury

2022

Preprint

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Estimating the time since deposition (TSD) of a bloodstain can provide important medico-legal information for crime scene investigation. Research in this area primarily investigates the degradation of either hemoglobin or genetic material over time. In this work, we present a comprehensive meta-analysis on bloodstain TSD research. Our results are interpreted from 25 quantitative studies used to probe the effect of biomolecule studied, analytical technique used, substrate porosity, environmental conditions, and blood source on TSD estimates. There was an overall strong effect of time across studies (Fisher’s Zr = 1.66, r = 0.93), and generally, we found that the type of biomolecule studied (e.g., hemoglobin, DNA) had equal effect sizes for TSD estimation. Differences in the mean TSD effect size were also observed between substrate porosity. Interestingly, the blood source does not significantly influence the magnitude of the effect sizes in TSD estimation. Despite the clear effect of time, forensically relevant prediction of bloodstain TSD remains complicated by inter-donor variability, type of substrate and environmental conditions. We recommend that future bloodstain TSD research increase sample size, include summary statistics and standardize experimental methodologies so that we can develop a quantitative understanding of the physicochemical processes involved in whole blood degradation in ex vivo conditions.

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Determination of the Time since Deposition of blood‐traces in a forensic context: Application of untargeted LC‐HR‐MS/MS metabolomics profiling

Schneider

Kræmer

Steuer

2023

Drug Testing and Analysis

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Being able to attest when a bloodstain was deposited at a crime scene can be invaluable to a prosecution process, and methods to provide that information have long been desired. Determining the Time since Deposition (TsD) of a trace would allow placing a subject both in space and time to the crime scene-or prove that a trace left by that person was unrelated to it because it was deposited before or after the time the crime had occurred. To this day, no method for TsD determination has made its way into routine forensic casework, mainly because of the numerous challenges that await when trying to understand and account for all the influencing and confounding factors that affect the aging process (such as, e.g., temperature, UV-light exposure, or humidity). Here, we present an untargeted metabolomics-based study using liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HR-MS) and data-dependent acquisition to analyze blood samples aged under two distinctly different storage conditions over 48 weeks. Global differences in age-and storage-dependent changes in blood metabolomes were described, and TsD-classification strategies based on qualitative and quantitative assessment of molecular features (MFs) have been proposed.Based on the selected criteria to best predict the TsD, the dipeptide Phenylalanylalanine (PheAla) can be considered as a promising candidate for TsD prediction. In essence, changes in the blood metabolome dynamics showed a strong association with increasing TsD, but significant differences depending on storage conditioning were observed, facilitating the need to study further the influence of individual influencing factors on TsD determination.

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Degradation of human mRNA transcripts over time as an indicator of the time since deposition (TsD) in biological crime scene traces

Abstract: Degradation of human mRNA transcripts over time as an indicator of the time since deposition (TsD) in biological crime scene t r a c e s , Forensic

Cited by 32 publications

References 55 publications

On the Identification of Body Fluids and Tissues: A Crucial Link in the Investigation and Solution of Crime

On the Identification of Body Fluids and Tissues: A Crucial Link in the Investigation and Solution of Crime

The crux of time: A meta-analysis of ex vivo whole blood degradation

Determination of the Time since Deposition of blood‐traces in a forensic context: Application of untargeted LC‐HR‐MS/MS metabolomics profiling

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