Forensic Context

A study in human postmortem prefrontal cortex demonstrated that the miR-324-5p was significantly decreased (0.667 of control, p=0.0129) in antidepressant-free depressed suicide subjects compared to non-psychiatric controls [Smalheiser et al. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0033201]. A study in human postmortem cerebellar tissue demonstrated that the miR-324-5p was significantly expressed and, when combined with miR-195, completely discriminated individuals who died from severe frontal cortex traumatic brain injury from a reference group who died from natural causes, a finding unaltered by potential confounders [Schober et al. DOI:10.1007/s00414-014-1129-3]. A subsequent systematic review and meta-analysis confirmed the miR-324-5p as a reported diagnostic marker for severe TBI from cerebellar tissue, with miRNAs in blood and brain tissue showing high overall diagnostic accuracy for TBI [Zhou et al. DOI:10.7150/ijms.48214].