120th General Meeting of the KCS

Type Oral Presentation
Area Oral Presentation of Young Analytical Chemists II
Room No. Room C308+C309
Time FRI 09:10-:
Code ANAL2.O-2
Subject Changes of Saliva N-glycome after Death: A Proof-of-Concept Study for Determining Time of Death
Authors Bum Jin Kim, Hyun Joo An*
Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Korea
Abstract The estimation of time since death (TSD) is the crucial part for investigations of the suspicious death in forensic science. However, standard methods of TSD estimation are easily confounded by extenuating circumstances and/or environmental factors. Therefore, a panel of TSD markers obtained from more acceptable and accurate method is necessary to definitely determine the time of death. Saliva, one of the vital fluids encountered at crime scenes, contains various glycoproteins which are highly affected by biochemical environment. Here, we investigated saliva N-glycans between live and dead rats to determine the alteration of N-glycans using animal model system due to the limitation of saliva collection from recently-deceased humans. Rat saliva samples were collected both before and after death. N-glycans were enzymatically released by PNGase F without any glycoprotein extraction. Released native glycans were purified and enriched by PGC-SPE. About 100 N-glycans were identified, profiled, and structurally elucidated by nano LC/MS and tandem MS. Sialylated N-glycans were exclusively present in abundance in live rat saliva while non-sialylated N-glycans including LacdiNAc disaccharides were detected in high level following death. Through in-depth investigations using quantitative comparison and statistical analysis, 14 N-glycans significantly changed after death were identified as the potential marker candidates for TSD estimation. This proof of concept study demonstrated the feasibility of saliva glycosylation for estimating time of death, with obvious forensic applications.
E-mail kbj0131@gmail.com