Use of microRNA to estimate time science death: review

Abstract

Death prescription evaluation is still one of the most difficult issues in forensic medical practice. This review aimed to assess the potential use of micro ribonucleic acid (miRNA) in death prescription diagnosis. MiRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that are 1824 nucleotides long and are well preserved in the eukaryotic cells. Their role is to regulate gene expression in biological processes during the post-transcriptional phase. MiRNA was proven to be effective in clinical medicine for various disease diagnoses, with its possible use in forensic medicine as a marker for death prescription assessment due to its low molecular weight, tissue-specific expression, and high resistance to external and internal environmental factors. The analysis results of scientific literature revealed that the internal characteristics of miRNA molecules and their high resistance to degradation make them suitable as biomarkers for the duration of death assessment, especially in the late postmortem period; however, further large-scale studies on cadaveric material are necessary.