Reducing Pathogen Burden Improves Resilience Metrics

Linked theories: Pathogen Control (Lidsky), Resilience / Criticality (Fedichev)

Hypothesis

Anti-pathogen interventions reduce autocorrelation time/variance of organismal state and lower hazard beyond non-infection interventions.

Design

• Model: Aged mice (18–20 months), cohorts with natural microbiome/pathogen burden.
• Arms (N=30/arm): Vehicle; Broad-spectrum prophylaxis (e.g., vaccination panel/antivirals/antimicrobials per vet guidance); Non-infection longevity control (e.g., rapamycin).
• Longitudinal data: CBC (for DOSI), activity telemetry, frailty index.

Endpoints

• Primary: DOSI autocorrelation time; Secondary: variance, hazard, frailty.

Time & Cost (est.)

• 6–12 months; $150k–$300k.

Discriminator

• PC: Anti-pathogen arm reduces DOSI autocorrelation and hazard beyond non-infection control.
• Resilience-only: Similar improvements without pathogen-specific interventions.