Identification of gunshots to the head by detection of RNA in backspatter primarily expressed in brain tissue


Autoria(s): Lux, Constantin; Schyma, Christian; Madea, Burkhard; Courts, Cornelius
Data(s)

2014

Resumo

Traces of backspatter recovered from the inside of the barrel of a gun that was used to deliver suicidal or homicidal contact shots may be a source of valuable forensic evidence and first systematic investigations of the persistence of victim DNA from inside firearms have been presented. The aim of the present study was to include victim RNA in such analyses to determine the origin of tissues in addition and parallel to standard DNA profiling for forensic identification purposes. In a first step, suitable mRNA (C1orf61) and micro-RNAs (miR-124a and miR-124*) that are primarily expressed in brain tissue were selected from potential candidates and confirmed using quantitative PCR (qPCR). Secondly, a co-extraction procedure for RNA and DNA was established and brain differentiability of the selected RNAs was demonstrated via qPCR using samples from experimental shots at ballistic models. In a third step, this procedure was successfully applied to analyse samples from real casework comprising eight cases of suicidal contact shots. In this pilot study, we are first to report the possibility of co-extracting mRNA, miRNA and DNA from ballistic trace samples collected from the inside of firearms and we demonstrate that RNA and DNA based analyses can be performed in parallel to produce informative and highly complementary evidence.

Formato

application/pdf

Identificador

http://boris.unibe.ch/62289/1/1-s2.0-S0379073814000401-main.pdf__tid%3Dff232a9e-a169-11e4-8819-00000aab0f26%26acdnat%3D1421843915_353012a5cc0ee966d3d41540ceae3dd1

Lux, Constantin; Schyma, Christian; Madea, Burkhard; Courts, Cornelius (2014). Identification of gunshots to the head by detection of RNA in backspatter primarily expressed in brain tissue. Forensic science international, 237, pp. 62-69. Elsevier Scientific Publ. Ireland 10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.01.016 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.01.016>

doi:10.7892/boris.62289

info:doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.01.016

info:pmid:24598119

urn:issn:0379-0738

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

Elsevier Scientific Publ. Ireland

Relação

http://boris.unibe.ch/62289/

Direitos

info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess

Fonte

Lux, Constantin; Schyma, Christian; Madea, Burkhard; Courts, Cornelius (2014). Identification of gunshots to the head by detection of RNA in backspatter primarily expressed in brain tissue. Forensic science international, 237, pp. 62-69. Elsevier Scientific Publ. Ireland 10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.01.016 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.01.016>

Tipo

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

PeerReviewed