The phrase "agent of life" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe something or someone that plays a significant role in promoting or sustaining life.
Example: "Water is often considered the most essential agent of life, as it is crucial for all living organisms."
Alternatives: "force of life" or "catalyst for life."
It is also the agent of life and death, one moment dispensing lethal bullets, but also likened to the life-giving qualities of sex.
Escherichia coli O157 H7 (EcO157), an agent of life threatening hemolytic-uremic syndrome, resides in ruminants and is released in feces at numbers as high as 10 million cells/gram.
Despite being the agent of life-threatening meningitis, Neisseria meningitidis is usually carried asymptomatically in the nasopharynx of humans and only occasionally causes disease.
Despite this long association, substantial histologic, epidemiologic, and experimental data suggest H. pylori is a causative agent of life-threatening diseases such as gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) and gastric MALT Lymphoma, as well as their precursory gastric lesions such as chronic gastritis, gastric atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, and dysplasia (Crew and Neugut 2006).
Youle, M., Haynes, M. & Rohwer, F. in Viruses: Essential Agents of Life (ed. Witzany, G.) 61 81 (Springer Netherlands, 2012).
Smart, connected devices have been pitched to consumers as agents of life improvement.
Aspergillus species are important agents of life-threatening infections in immunosuppressed patients.
Hantaviruses are etiological agents of life-threatening hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome.
The vast majority of children in developing countries are infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type B and other aetiologic agents of life-threatening pneumonia: such nasopharyngeal carriage is mostly asymptomatic and correlates poorly with invasive disease [ 21, 22].
Bacteria belonging to the genus Cronobacter spp. have been recognized as causative agents of life-threatening systemic infections, primarily in premature, low-birth weight and/or immune-compromised neonates.
