Researchers have found that restoring cellular vibration can reduce the aggressiveness of advanced vocal cord cancer. The study, conducted by teams from the BarrierForce Centre of Excellence and the InFLAMES Research Flagship, showed that when cancer cells were exposed to sound-wave vibrations mimicking vocal cord movement, levels of a protein known as YAP—which promotes cancer growth—decreased.
The research was inspired by a question: "What music should we play to our cells?" This led scientists to investigate whether laryngeal cancer cells might respond to external vibrations. Laryngeal cancer is among the most common head and neck cancers, often first presenting as hoarseness due to its impact on the vocal cords. As the disease progresses, movement in these tissues decreases because they stiffen and are invaded by cancer.
Academy Professor Johanna Ivaska, Director of the BarrierForce Centre of Excellence funded by the Research Council of Finland, explained: "We wondered whether 'movement could be medicine' and whether tissue stiffening and immobilisation contribute to cancer development."
Ivaska added: "We developed this idea together with BarrierForce Vice Director Professor Sara Wickström and her research group. With their help, we used a bioreactor in which cells were grown on a vibrating membrane placed on top of a loudspeaker."
Jasmin Kaivola, lead author of the study from the University of Turku in Finland, contributed an innovative approach by connecting an old mobile phone to play sounds through the device during experiments.
The findings indicated that simulating vocal cord movement through vibration reduced malignancy in laryngeal cancer cells. The researchers also analyzed samples from about 200 Finnish patients with early-stage and advanced laryngeal cancer. They observed that higher expression of proteins linked to tissue stiffness increased YAP activity and correlated with mortality rates. Furthermore, experimental models revealed sensitivity to a targeted drug under development that inhibits YAP protein activity.
Kaivola stated: "The study is entirely groundbreaking because the biomechanics of developing cancers have not previously been studied in moving tissues." She suggested future research could explore if similar mechanisms apply in other cancers affecting moving tissues like lung cancer.
The results were published in Nature Materials. The project was mainly carried out at Academy Professor Johanna Ivaska’s laboratory at Turku Bioscience Centre in Finland. It also involved clinicians from University Hospitals of Turku and Helsinki who treat oral cancers, as well as physicists specializing in soft matter from universities in Vienna and Milan.
