IORS – The Radiobiology Group

The Radiobiology Group with members of the Laboratory for Radiobiology and Experimental Oncology of the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia (IORS) investigates molecular parameters (potential biomarkers) for the prediction of response to radiotherapy in patients with glioblastoma, prostate, and breast cancer from tissue samples, body fluids, peripheral blood mononuclear cells and extracellular vesicles (exosomes). A special focus of our research is dedicated to the analysis of microRNAs from exosomes of patients with glioblastoma (in collaboration with colleagues from the Laboratory for Radiobiology and Molecular Genetics of the Institute of Nuclear Sciences “VINČA” – National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, and colleagues from the Department for radiotherapy of solid tumors of IORS). Also, our group investigates the association between transcriptome changes, micro RNA expression, the presence of SNPs, and the abundance of certain proteins and metabolites with the response to radiation therapy in terms of radiotoxicity and adverse effects of RT. One of our hypotheses is based on the fact that micro RNAs isolated from peripheral blood lymphocytes can be indicators of radiosensitivity and the occurrence of side effects in patients with malignant diseases during radiation therapy. So far, we have shown that the expression levels of micro RNAs change significantly during radiation therapy and that their levels are associated with the occurrence of side effects and the degree of toxicity. One of the hypotheses may also be that the microRNA content of extracellular vesicles may contribute to these differences in expression as well as it can influence the signaling pathways involved in the response to irradiation and normal tissue reaction. One of our future goals is to investigate the biological and clinical significance of the content of extracellular vesicles in response to radiation therapy, as well as to contribute with our research to the discovery of potential biomarkers for predicting individual radiosensitivity.

Dr Tatjana Stanojković