spy vs spy

To target self-reactive killer-Ts,
chimeric leukocytes present a way
while money's lavished on oncologies
arthritis may be what makes CAR-Ts pay.
The cytosol lets cancers' defects hide
surveillance misses what goes on in there.
But TCRs displayed on the outside
announce their targets brazenly, and bare.
'Though failsafes circumscribe a white cell's role,
they'll sometimes pick a fight we do not need.
As killer clones escape their mete control,
a doctor wants new tools to intercede.
When maladaptive leukocytes run mad,
build chimeras to curb T-cells gone bad.

memories

bacteria use CRISPR with CAS9
to fend off phages that they've seen before
encoded in their own genetic line
remembrances of the ongoing war
a selfish meme, intent to multiply
applies selective pressures on its host
which counters, if it isn't gonna die
a rational response, that needs no ghost
immunity requires a memory
to store a gallery of rogues and find
a complement to an old enemy
a smart riposte need not imply a mind
darwinians show 'how' but never 'why'
Life needs no grand Designer from on High

checkpoint

blockade of PD-1 lets T-cells whack
some cancers that had learned to skate on by
disregulating aut-immune attack
malignant tumors--sometimes--melt and die
redundant safeguards keep the dogs in check
to ward self-tissues from such civil war
instead of passing through one bottleneck
with PD-1, there's CTLA-4
but when such interventions go awry
T-leukocytes proliferate in haste
whole host self-tissues shrivel up and die
immune attack lays the whole patient waste
immuno-onco's no mere passing fad
but when it misses, things go really bad

immuno-onco II

down-regulation of MHC-1
can cloak a cancer's cytosolic mess
so Killer T-cells don't come on the run
to put the mutant out of its distress
immune surveillance only scans the shell
displayed to White-cells on the cell's membrane
while all internal pathways run to Hell
a billion years of order gone insane
chimeric T-cells bridge some of that lack
but only see the surface antigens
what's membrane-integral, they can attack
but cancers seem less "foe"than they do 'friend"
most transformed cells get swept up ev'ry  night
yet some rogues learn to thwart our leukocytes

immuno-onco II

down-regulation of MHC-1
can cloak a cancer's cytosolic mess
so Killer T-cells don't come on the run
to put the mutant out of its distress
immune surveillance only scans the shell
displayed to White-cells on the cell's membrane
while all internal pathways run to Hell
a billion years of order gone insane
chimeric T-cells bridge some of that lack
but only see the surface antigens
what's membrane-integral, they can attack
but cancers seem less "foe"than they do 'friend"
most transformed cells get swept up ev'ry  night
yet some rogues learn to thwart our leukocytes

immuno-onco

down-regulation of MHC-1
can cloak a cancer's cytosolic mess
so Killer T-cells don't come on the run
to put the mutant out of its distress
immune surveillance only scans the shell
displayed to White-cells on the cell's membrane
while all internal pathways run to Hell
a billion years of order gone insane
chimeric T-cells sometimes fill that lack
but only see the surface antigens
what's membrane-integral, they can attack
but cancers seem less "foe"than they do 'friend"
most transformed cells apoptose in the night
the worst rogues learn to thwart our leukocytes