MiRNAs as New Tools in Lesion Vitality Evaluation: A Systematic Review and Their Forensic Applications

Abstract

Wound vitality demonstration is one of the most challenging fields in forensic pathology. In recent years, researchers focused on the application of histological and immunohistochemical staining in this sphere of study. It is based on the detection of inflammation, red cell infiltration, and tissue alterations at the histological examination, all of which are supposedly present in antemortem rather than post-mortem wounds. Nevertheless, some doubts about the reliability of those markers have arisen. Furthermore, the lack of a standardized protocol and the operator dependency of this approach make the proper interpretation of its results difficult. Moreover, a differential miRNAs expression has been demonstrated in antemortem and post-mortem wounds. Herein, a systematic review concerning the current knowledge about the use of miRNAs in lesion vitality evaluation is carried out, to encourage researchers to deepen this peculiar study area. A compendium about the potential miRNAs that may be further investigated as vitality markers is also provided. The aim is to collect all available data about this topic to direct further studies on this field and highlight the future applications of miRNAs in forensic pathology. We found 20 articles and a total of 51 miRNAs that are involved in inflammation and wound healing. Further studies are certainly needed to deepen the role of miRNAs in inflammatory processes in lesioned skin and to evaluate their reliability in distinguishing between antemortem and post-mortem lesions.

Myeloperoxydase and CD15 With Glycophorin C Double Staining in the Evaluation of Skin Wound Vitality in Forensic Practice

“…Most notably, in skin lesions, several studies about cell adhesion molecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1, P-selectin, E-selectin, fibronectin, …) were published, reporting for some markers a good sensitivity in recent wounds, but limited by a significant risk of post-mortem false positivity ( 3 , 11 – 16 ). More recently, the use of microRNAs in forensic science has been proposed in various applications, including wound vitality, showing for few microRNAs interesting but still preliminary results ( 17 – 19 ).…”

Common Ground between Biological Rhythms and Forensics

“…Individuals who died during daytime or night-time have characteristic expression patterns of miRNA sampled from human vitreous humor [ 43 ]. In general, the differential expression of miRNAs was found to be a useful tool to determine PMI [ 44 ] and wound vitality [ 45 ], which could be combined with information on the rhythmical expression to further specify PMI and wound vitality. Cycling gene expression patterns that were associated with time of death were further found in blood samples [ 41 ] and samples from cerebellum, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate cortex and hippocampus [ 46 , 47 ], but it is not clear if these cycling genes are also under circadian clock control or rather regulated by other factors.…”

Identification and Validation of Ferroptosis-Related Biomarkers in Septic Cardiomyopathy via Bioinformatics Analysis

“…MiRNAs, small, single-stranded, non-coding RNAs (18–24 nucleotides), well conserved in eukaryotic organisms, play biological roles in inflammation, metabolism, and development ( Mendell and Olson 2012 ; Manetti et al, 2021 ). What’s more, in inflammatory heart diseases and sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction, circulating miRNAs were proposed as biomarkers for diagnosis and disease monitoring ( Mirna et al, 2019 ; Manetti et al, 2020 ; Chiti et al, 2021 ).…”