Talin: A potential protein biomarker in postmortem investigations

Abstract

The determination of the postmortem interval is of utmost importance in medicolegal death investigations. There are a number of ways to estimate the postmortem interval; however, the current established methods are susceptible to numerous biotic and abiotic factors. Previously published studies state that protein concentrations in postmortem brain tissues can detect protein changes via immunoblotting and densitometry techniques. The objective of the current study was to determine if there is a correlation between protein expression in cadaver tissues and postmortem interval. To this end, 18 brain tissues from cadavers from criminal cases were examined to determine how many hours after death the presence of four proteins (i.e., talin, α-enolase, cofilin-1, and vinculin) are detectable. Talin protein levels steadily decreased with increasing postmortem interval. Interestingly, the study demonstrated that talin protein levels were statistical significant between postmortem intervals of 24 versus 48 h and 24 versus 72 h by ANOVA. These results provide strong evidence that talin has potential to be used as a unique biomarker for the establishment of an additional method to estimate the time of death.