Vitória Ramos

Conventional forensic DNA profiling predominantly utilizes established core sets of autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs), such as the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and the European Standard Set (ESS). While these panels are effective for standard forensic casework, they may be inadequate in more demanding scenarios, including severely degraded samples, complex multi-contributor mixtures, and kinship cases with deficiencies, where enhanced discriminatory capability is crucial. Additional non-core STR loci address these challenges while maintaining the non-coding, phenotypically uninformative nature that ensures the legal and ethical acceptability of forensic genetic evidence in court. This review assesses the forensic applications, population genetic parameters, validation requirements, and ethical considerations associated with non-core STR loci. A representative supplementary STR panel is presented as a case study to illustrate both the forensic value and the analytical requirements associated with the implementation of extended non-core STR systems. Challenges in implementation were identified in areas such as nomenclature standardization, backward compatibility with existing national databases, and geographic gaps in population reference data. The review concludes that a hybrid strategy, which retains core capillary electrophoresis (CE)-based profiling for routine casework and employs extended non-core panels for complex cases, represents the most practical path for the field.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are characterized by progressive and irreversible neuronal loss, accompanied by a range of pathological pathways, including aberrant protein aggregation, altered energy metabolism, excitotoxicity, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Some of the most common NDs include Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington’s Disease (HD). There are currently no available cures; there are only therapeutic approaches that ameliorate the progression of symptoms, which makes the search for new drugs and therapeutic targets a constant battle. Cyanobacteria are ancient prokaryotic oxygenic phototrophs whose long evolutionary history has resulted in the production of a plethora of biomedically relevant compounds with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and neuroprotective properties, that can be valuable in this field. This review summarizes the major NDs and their pathophysiology, with a focus on the anti-neurodegenerative properties of cyanobacterial compounds and their main effects.