Prions
Shaking and trembling she lay
Further and further the symptoms progress
As others begin to follow suit
in her brain, cells work hard
to replicate and regenerate
amino acids hydrolyzing.
The proteins responsible
cannot form correctly
folding wrong, they try again
and again and again and again.
With each attempt at a new fold
more alpha helices
and beta sheets
become misshapen.
Beautifully winding amino
acid chains curl up to form
their delicate helices.
Beta sheets transverse
each helix
but it’s all wrong.
I tried to read as much as I could about prions and how they spread throughout the brain, but there’s only so much I can write with the amount of knowledge I have on the subject. It’s really interesting reading the case studies on it and how heavily it affects those who it affects. I also tried to focus on the biology of it as opposed to a more abstract description of what it can cause. But I’m not sure if I can really write that thoroughly on the subject, since I’ve only done some pretty simple research on prions.