The SONIC study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating SecONdary Immunodeficiency in Chronic kidney disease - the SONIC study.
IRAS ID
154884
Contact name
Nadezhda Wall
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
Chronic kidney disease is becoming more common and a significant amount of the yearly healthcare budget is devoted to its treatment. Chronic kidney disease is associated with significant risks of hospitalisation and death, and we know that rates of infection are greater in this population than in healthy individuals. As yet it is not clear why this is, but we can see that as kidney function worsens, the risk of infection increases at an alarming rate. To be able to prevent unnecessary infection-related deaths and hospitalisations in chronic kidney disease patients we need to understand what the immunity problem is and what causes it in this population. This research will explore immune system function in patients with chronic kidney disease and try to answer the question “where is the problem?”. It is vital that this question is addressed first, as without knowing the “where” we cannot find out the “why”. We will study immune cells in patients and their responses to vaccinations (including the ‘flu vaccine), comparing them to those of healthy people. This will help us to develop new research and treatment strategies to prevent infections in this vulnerable group of patients in the future.
REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0057
Date of REC Opinion
9 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion