critical

The study, published in Nature Microbiology, provides new insights into the often-overlooked impact of human-targeted drugs on the microbial communities that play a critical role in human health.

The paper is not only a critical analysis of blue zones, but a plea against the whole field of extreme-age demography.

"Previous studies have not really looked at this critical first year of life with the kind of sensitive body fat measures we were able to use," said Rachel Rickman, lead author of the study and former doctoral student of Widen.

He said, at times, staff ratios had to be stretched, meaning specialist critical care nurses had to look after six patients rather than give the one-to-one care they would in normal times.

These results show that D22 can inhibit critical infections and highlights the compound's promise for further development toward future clinical trials as "an innovative solution to fight antimicrobial resistance," say the researchers.