The potential of using non-coding RNAs in forensic science applications

Abstract

With the continuous development and integration of molecular biology and forensic science, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), especially ncRNAs with regulatory functions such as microRNA, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and circular RNA (circRNA), have recently been actively explored by forensic scholars. In this study, we review the literature on these ncRNAs in various fields of forensic science, including post-mortem interval (PMI) determination, wound age estimation, forensic age assessment, cause of death analysis, and body fluid identification, aiming to evaluate the current research and provide a perspective for future applications.