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Background: Forensic analysis heavily relies on DNA analysis techniques, notably autosomal Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), to expedite the identification of unknown suspects through genomic database searches. However, the uniqueness of an individual's genome sequence designates it as Personal Identifiable Information (PII), subjecting it to stringent privacy regulations that can impede data access and analysis, as well as restrict the parties allowed to handle the data. Homomorphic Encryption (HE) emerges as a promising solution, enabling the execution of complex functions on encrypted data without the need for decryption. HE not only permits the processing of PII as soon as it is collected and encrypted, such as at a crime scene, but also expands the potential for data processing by multiple entities and artificial intelligence services., Methods: This study introduces HE-based privacy-preserving methods for SNP DNA analysis, offering a means to compute kinship scores for a set of genome queries while meticulously preserving data privacy. We present three distinct approaches, including one unsupervised and two supervised methods, all of which demonstrated exceptional performance in the iDASH 2023 Track 1 competition., Results: Our HE-based methods can rapidly predict 400 kinship scores from an encrypted database containing 2000 entries within seconds, capitalizing on advanced technologies like Intel AVX vector extensions, Intel HEXL, and Microsoft SEAL HE libraries. Crucially, all three methods achieve remarkable accuracy levels (ranging from 96% to 100%), as evaluated by the auROC score metric, while maintaining robust 128-bit security. These findings underscore the transformative potential of HE in both safeguarding genomic data privacy and streamlining precise DNA analysis., Conclusions: Results demonstrate that HE-based solutions can be computationally practical to protect genomic privacy during screening of candidate matches for further genealogy analysis in Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG)., Competing Interests: Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate Not applicable. Consent for publication Not applicable. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Colorectal cancer can be efficiently treated when found at early stages, thus the search for novel markers is of paramount importance. Since inflammation is associated with cancer progression and angiogenesis, we investigated expression of cytokines like IL-6 and other mediators that play a key role in the innate immune system, in particular toll like receptor 4 (TLR4), in the microenvironment of lesions from different stages of colon disease progression, from ulcerative colitis to adenoma and adenocarcinoma to find useful markers., Methods: The presence of inflammatory cells and expression of key cytokines involved in the inflammation process were quantified by immunohistochemistry in specific tissue compartments (epithelial, stromal, endothelial) by immunohistochemistry. A murine azoxymethane/dextran sulfate model in which Tir8, a negative regulator of the inflammatory response, was ablated was used to confirm the clinical observations. 116 Archival tissue samples from patients with different stages of colorectal disease: 13 cases of ulcerative colitis (UC), 34 tubular or tubulo-villous adenomas (AD), and 53 infiltrating adenocarcinomas. 16 specimens of healthy mucosa surgically removed with the cancerous tissue were used as a control., Results: The differences between healthy tissues and the diverse lesions was characterized by a marked inflammatory-angiogenic reaction, with significantly (P < 0.05) higher numbers of CD68, CD15, and CD31 expressing cells in all diseased tissues that correlated with increasing grade of malignancy. We noted down-regulation of a potential modulator molecule, Hepatocyte Growth Factor, in all diseased tissues (P < 0.05). TLR-4 and IL6 expression in the tumor microenvironment were associated with adenocarcinoma in human samples and in the murine model. We found that adenocarcinoma patients (pT1-4) with higher TLR-4 expression in stromal compartment had a significantly increased risk in disease progression. In those patients with a diagnosis of pT3 (33 cases) colon cancer, those with very high levels of TLR-4 in the tumor stroma relapsed significantly earlier than those with lower expression levels., Conclusions: These data suggest that high TLR-4 expression in the tumor microenvironment represents a possible marker of disease progression in colon cancer.