Investigating the Immune System in chrONIC Kidney Disease.

Compared to the general population, people with CKD are known to get more infections and are more likely to have complications from them. Protective measures such as vaccinations for common infections are not as effective in patients with CKD as they are in people with healthy kidneys. The reasons why this happens are not very clear. It is known that with increasing age, the body's immune defences are weakened, but it is not yet clear how different this is in older people with CKD compared to older people with healthy kidneys. Understanding how CKD affects the body's immune defence to new infections is vital in helping to prevent severe consequences from infection and make vaccination more effective for this group of people. This project aims to look at the function of immune cells in CKD patients and people with normal kidney function, together with their responses to clinically recommended vaccinations, including Pneumococcus (common pneumonia organism) and the influenza virus (the flu). Study participants are invited to receive the clinically recommended seasonal influenza and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines during the seasonal influenza vaccination season (September - December), mirroring routine care they would receive in the community. Information on age, gender and pre-existing health problems, together with blood and urine samples will be collected from CKD patients for comparison with healthy volunteers at the following timepoints: day of vaccination, day 7 and 28 and 6 months after vaccination.