Forensic Context

A study in humans established a multi-class support vector machine (MSVM) classification model using 12 key miRNA markers for forensic body fluid identification, which achieved 98% accuracy on an independent test set [Li et al. DOI:10.1016/j.fsigen.2024.103180]. A study in humans using massively parallel sequencing on the Ion PGM System characterized miRNA expression in blood and saliva, identifying the miR-200c-3p as one of 19 saliva-specific miRNAs that was strongly over-expressed in saliva and below detection in blood [Wang et al. DOI:10.1016/j.fsigen.2015.10.008]. Subsequent TaqMan qPCR validation in humans revealed the miR-200c-3p exhibited higher expression in vaginal secretions compared to saliva, venous blood, and menstrual blood, and was detected in only 2 of 10 semen samples, indicating it was not saliva-specific alone [Wang et al. DOI:10.1111/1556-4029.12730].