Researchers at the University of South Australia have found a new use for AC/DC music – to help create a coating around particles within chemotherapy treatment to better deliver the drug to a patient's tumor.
According to a recent study by Prof. Nico Voelcker, using rock music, specifically "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC in this case, helps give the particles a better coating before they're delivered to a tumor.
“The micro particles are porous, basically they are like a sponge. You fill them up with a drug, but of course you want to prevent the drug from escaping, and that is why we create the coating,” he said
“Normally we would ignite a plasma onto the surface. The problem with doing that is you only form the coating on one side of the particle, the side that is exposed. But the side of the particle on the surface, the other side, is not going to get coated.”
“That is where we came up with the idea of using a loud speaker that we would play into the system. We would turn that loudspeaker to a song that it would vibrate and the particles would bounce up and down. The chaotic frequencies worked well and gave you a more homogenous coating.”
Voelcker says the use of rock music raised efficacy from anywhere between two-fold to 100-fold, and he hopes the strategy can be tested on other drugs… because hey, if you've got an excuse to blast good music while saving lives, why wouldn't you?
