United States Department of Transportation
i
Effects of Cannabinoids and Postmortem Interval on Gene Expression: Considerations for the Forensic Genetic Analysis of Civil Aviation Accident Victims
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2023-05-01
[PDF-601.09 KB]
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Abstract:Cannabis is the third most commonly used drug of abuse following alcohol and tobacco in the United States. Cannabis is federally classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 but is legal for medicinal and/or recreational purposes in 39 US states. However, cannabis use by safety-sensitive personnel, including certificated pilots, remains prohibited in the US. Despite the prohibition on cannabis use among pilots, a number of fatal accidents in which the deceased pilot tests positive for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and/or metabolites in post-accident toxicological analyses still occur. No correlation is known to exist between blood or tissue THC concentration and degree of functional impairment, frustrating efforts to ascribe causality for this subset of aviation accidents. One possible solution for this lack of correlation is forensic transcriptome analysis, specifically postmortem analysis of the expression of cannabis-responsive genes whose expression can be correlated with measures of cognitive impairment. Cannabis consumption results in quantifiable changes in gene expression, from which biomarkers correlating with the timeline of use and impairment may be identified. Complicating matters is that the transcriptome is not static postmortem, with hundreds, if not thousands, of genes exhibiting differential expression throughout the postmortem interval.
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Content Notes:Project Name: Gene Expression and Biomarker Utility in Postmortem Samples
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