Estimation of Time of Death through Observation of Microbiota Changes in the Oral Cavity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35790/eg.v13i1.54461Abstract
Abstract: Various methods for estimating post-mortem (PMI) have been investigated such as rigor mortis, livor mortis, molecular, chemical, and forensic entomology (insect) methods. However, these methods have weaknesses, therefore researchers are looking for more accurate methods in determining the time of death of a person. Molecular methods are unreliable due to the degradation of DNA, RNA, and proteins in corpses over time. In different parts of the body, the amount of diversity of microbes will be different. The oral cavity is the most abundant microbial area among other parts of the body due to its continuous exposure to the respiratory and digestive systems. This area has great potential in estimating time intervals of death because of its ease of access and the types of microbiomes that predominate at any given time. Therefore, this narrative review was conducted to describe studies that used oral microbiota communities to estimate post-mortem intervals. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes are the dominant microbial types found in corpses. Firmicutes became one of the dominant bacterial phyla in the early stages of decomposition. Actinobacteria were found to decrease as PMI increased. Studies have shown that the oral microbiome has excellent potential as a parameter to determine the post-mortem interval. However, further research is needed with more complex environmental conditions such as different humidity and temperature. In addition, further research requires more samples of human remains to obtain more valid results.
Keywords: oral microbiome; post-mortem interval; human identification; forensic odontology
References
Dong K, Xin Y, Cao F, Huang Z, Sun J, Peng M, et al. Succession of oral microbiota community as a tool to estimate post-mortem interval. Sci Rep. 2019;9(1):13063. Doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49338-z
Ashe EC, Comeau AM, Zejdlik K, O’Connell SP. Characterization of bacterial community dynamics of the human mouth throughout decomposition via metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, and culturing techniques. Front Microbiol. 2021;12: 689493. Doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.689493
Metcalf JL. Estimating the post-mortem interval using microbes: knowledge gaps and a path to technology adoption. Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2019;38:211-18. Doi: 10.1016/J.FSIGEN.2018.11.004
Liu R, Gu Y, Shen M, Li H, Zhang K, Wang Q, et al. Predicting post-mortem interval based on microbial community sequences and machine learning algorithms. Environ Microbiol. 2020;22(6):2273-91. Doi:10.1111/1462-2920.15000
Guo J, Fu X, Liao H, Hu Z, Long L, Yan W, et al. Potential use of bacterial community succession for estimating post-mortem interval as revealed by high-throughput sequencing. Sci Rep. 2016;6(1): 24197. Doi:10.1038/srep24197
Javan GT, Finley SJ, Abidin Z, Mulle JG. The thanatomicrobiome: a missing piece of the microbial puzzle of death. Front Microbiol. 2016;7:225. Doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.00225
Metcalf JL, Parfrey LW, Gonzalez A, Lauber CL, Knights D, Ackermann G, et al. A microbial clock provides an accurate estimate of the post-mortem interval in a mouse model system. Elife. 2013;2:e01104. Doi:10.7554/eLife.01104
D’Angiolella G, Tozzo P, Gino S, Caenazzo L. Trick or treating in forensics—the challenge of the saliva microbiome: a narrative review. Microorganisms. 2020;8(10):1501. Doi:10.3390/microorganisms 8101501
Gao L, Xu T, Huang G, Jiang S, Gu Y, Chen F. Oral microbiomes: more and more importance in oral cavity and whole body. Protein Cell. 2018;9(5):488-500. Doi:10.1007/s13238-018-0548-1
Wang J, Feng J, Zhu Y, Li D, Wang J, Chi W. Diversity and biogeography of human oral saliva microbial communities revealed by the Earth Microbiome Project. Front Microbiol. 2022;13:931065. Doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.931065
Caselli E, Fabbri C, D’Accolti M, Soffritti I, Bassi C, Mazzacane S, et al. Defining the oral microbiome by whole-genome sequencing and resistome analysis: the complexity of the healthy picture. BMC Microbiol. 2020;20(1):120. Doi:10.1186/s12866-020-01801-y
Wade WG. The oral microbiome in health and disease. Pharmacol Res. 2013;69(1):137-43. Doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2012.11.006
Pushalkar S, Ji X, Li Y, Estilo C, Yegnanarayana R, Singh B, et al. Comparison of oral microbiota in tumor and non-tumor tissues of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. BMC Microbiol. 2012;12(1):144. Doi:10.1186/1471-2180-12-144
Verma D, Garg PK, Dubey AK. Insights into the human oral microbiome. Arch Microbiol. 2018;200(4): 525-40. Doi:10.1007/s00203-018-1505-3
Zhao X, Zhong Z, Hua Z. Estimation of the post-mortem interval by modelling the changes in oral bacterial diversity during decomposition. J Appl Microbiol. 2022;133(6):3451-64. Doi:10.1111/jam.15771
Hyde ER, Haarmann DP, Lynne AM, Bucheli SR, Petrosino JF. The living dead: bacterial community structure of a cadaver at the onset and end of the bloat stage of decomposition. PLoS One. 2013;8(10): e77733. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077733
Can I, Javan GT, Pozhitkov AE, Noble PA. Distinctive thanatomicrobiome signatures found in the blood and internal organs of humans. J Microbiol Methods. 2014;106:1-7. Doi: 10.1016/j.mimet.2014.07.026
Pechal JL, Crippen TL, Benbow ME, Tarone AM, Dowd S, Tomberlin JK. The potential use of bacterial community succession in forensics as described by high throughput metagenomic sequencing. Int J Legal Med. 2014;128(1):193-205. Doi:10.1007/s00414-013-0872-1
Yang B, Wang Y, Qian PY. Sensitivity and correlation of hypervariable regions in 16S rRNA genes in phylogenetic analysis. BMC Bioinformatics. 2016;17(1):135. Doi:10.1186/s12859-016-0992-y
Sharon I, Quijada NM, Pasolli E, Fabbrini M, Vitali F, Agamennone V, et al. The core human microbiome: Does it exist and how can we find it? A critical review of the concept. Nutrients. 2022;14(14):2872. Doi: 10.3390/nu14142872
Javan GT, Finley SJ, Smith T, Miller J, Wilkinson JE. Cadaver thanatomicrobiome signatures: the ubiquitous nature of clostridium species in human decomposition. Front Microbiol. 2017;8:2096. Doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.02096
Zarco MF, Vess TJ, Ginsburg GS. The oral microbiome in health and disease and the potential impact on personalized dental medicine. Oral Dis. 2012;18(2):109-20. Doi:10.1111/j.1601-0825.2011.01851.x
Adserias‐Garriga J, Quijada NM, Hernandez M, Rodríguez Lázaro D, Steadman D, Garcia‐Gil LJ. Dynamics of the oral microbiota as a tool to estimate time since death. Mol Oral Microbiol. 2017;32(6):511-6. Doi:10.1111/omi.12191
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Fahriza R. Oktaviana, Ferry P. Gultom, Roben S. Pasaribu, Elza I. Auerkari
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
COPYRIGHT
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors hold their copyright and grant this journal the privilege of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that permits others to impart the work with an acknowledgment of the work's origin and initial publication by this journal.
Authors can enter into separate or additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (for example, post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its underlying publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (for example, in institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
