Forensic Context

A study in human samples demonstrated that the miR-146b-3p was selected from microarray analysis as a candidate for lung tissue identification but displayed only minor differential expression between pooled tissues and was ultimately deemed unsuitable for forensic lung identification due to overlapping expression with other tissues and higher levels in venous blood [Sauer et al. DOI:10.1016/j.fsigen.2017.02.002]. A study in rats demonstrated that the miR-146b-3p was up-regulated more than 1.5-fold in the hippocampus at 1, 3, and 5 days following controlled cortical impact injury, identifying it as a potential marker for traumatic brain injury progression [Sun et al. DOI: 10.1007/s11596-014-1313-1]. In human studies, the miR-146b-3p was down-regulated in peripheral blood of antidepressant responders and up-regulated in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex of depressed suicide completers, establishing it as a biomarker of treatment response and a regulator of MAPK/Wnt signalling pathways [Lopez et al. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15497].