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Scientists are legitimately using AC/DC to improve cancer drugs

Researchers were left thunderstruck by the benefits

Scientists are legitimately using AC/DC to improve cancer drugs
26 April 2016

We always knew rock'n'roll could save your life, so we're pleased to have evidence provided by scientists in Australia.

This was the situation they found themselves in: they needed to coat their cancer drug in a polymer, but conventional methods meant that only one side would receive the necessary coating. What they needed was something that would cause the drugs to tumble in the air while the coating process took place.

Step forward AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck'. Here's senior research author Professor Nico Voelcker to explain: “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.”

As the team noted in their catchily-named paper, “Thunderstruck”: Plasma-Polymer-Coated Porous Silicon Microparticles As a Controlled Drug Delivery System“The overcoating resulted in a markedly slower release of the cytotoxic drug, and this effect correlated positively with the plasma polymer coating times, ranging from two-fold up to more than 100-fold."

So there you have: rock'n'roll is good for your health after all.