Clinical trials involving an experimental drug reduced the infection rates in elderly people by almost 40 percent by reversing the ageing effect in the immune system.

The drug itself will not make people live forever, the team stress, but it could allow people to live longer and healthier lives as their immune systems will be stronger for longer.

The drug, known as mTOR inhibitors, also boosted response’s to flu vaccines by 20 percent.

In the study, in which 264 volunteers were involved, a group who received the drug over the course of the year experienced an average of 1.49 infections, while those who didn’t had an average of 2.41 infections over 12 months.