COVID-19: Longitudinal immunological and multi-omic profiling of haemodialysis patients

COVID-19, caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2 ('coronavirus'), is a global emergency. Although most people suffer only mild symptoms, some people get seriously ill and the disease is deadly in around 1%. Patients with kidney disease are at high risk of developing serious illness. We urgently need new treatments for COVID-19. In order to develop them, we need to understand why some people get so ill. In these people, we think that the virus causes the body's immune system to goes into 'overdrive' and this causes collateral damage to the body. It is likely that this damage is caused by cells, genes and proteins involved in the immune response to the virus. To understand which ones are causing the problem, we have taken blood samples from patients with kidney disease who are receiving dialysis treatment 3 times a week and who have been infected with COVID-19. This means that we can look at blood samples over time to understand which genes are being switched on and which proteins are changing, particularly in patients who develop the most severe form of the disease. This will help us decide which drugs might help patients and improve survival.