Forensic Context

A study in humans demonstrated that hsa-miR-888-5p is a semen-specific microRNA biomarker, showing confirmed overexpression in semen with Cq values that were high or undetectable in non-semen body fluids [Li et al. DOI:10.1007/s00414-021-02678-w]. Subsequent research established a multi-class support vector machine classification model for forensic body fluid identification, where the miR-888-5p was selected as one of 12 key features, enabling distinct and positive identification of semen as it was not expressed or expressed at very low levels in non-target body fluids [Li et al. DOI:10.1016/j.fsigen.2024.103180]. A study in humans demonstrated that the miR-888-5p is highly expressed only in semen and is effective for semen identification, as it is detected at low levels or not detected in other forensically relevant body fluids [Fujimoto et al. DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-50796-8]. Another human study confirmed the miR-888-5p as a semen-specific marker, showing high expression exclusively in semen and successfully contributing to the discrimination of body fluids including peripheral blood, menstrual blood, saliva, and vaginal secretion using a small set of miRNA markers [Altmeyer et al. DOI:10.1002/elps.202400089].