Darwinian interventions: taming pathogens through evolutionary ecology

Abstract

From the seemingly inevitable emergence of antibiotic resistance following drug use to the necessity of annual influenza vaccine updates, the ability of pathogens to evolve appears to preclude the development of effective, long-term interventions for many diseases. Despite this gloomy forecast, recent research explores how various principles and concepts from evolutionary ecology might inform practical attempts to bring these disease-causing agents under greater human control. By utilizing evolutionary and ecological information at various scales, these works investigate some promising avenues of disease intervention, from trapping pathogens in evolutionary dead ends, through slowing or inhibiting the process of pathogen adaptation, to more accurate forecasting of pathogen evolutionary trajectories. Thus, an evolutionary ecology perspective might ultimately provide powerful new tools in the pursuit of enduring solutions to the problem of treatment-driven pathogen evolution.