February 13, 2024

Age and immunosuppression status affects vaccine effectiveness in kidney patients

A study assessing kidney patients who have been triple vaccinated for COVID-19 suggests they maintain some protection against COVID-19 in the nine months following their third dose. However, older patients and those on immunosuppression therapy experienced a somewhat diminished immune response compared to other patients at the end of the study.

Vaccines help our bodies create antibodies, which are proteins made by the immune system to help it attack harmful viruses or bacteria. However, it’s known that people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) may sometimes produce fewer vaccine-induced antibodies than the general population. To understand how well kidney patients are protected by COVID-19 vaccines, a group of researchers in British Columbia followed 285 kidney patients after they received a third mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. Blood samples were taken from patients every three months within a 9-month follow-up period. Patients who were older, male, and on immunosuppressive treatment tended to have fewer antibodies against COVID-19 compared to other participants by the end of the study. People over the age of 73 saw the largest decline in antibodies, suggesting that these patients will likely benefit the most from additional vaccine doses. However, despite a gradual decrease in antibody levels over the 9-month follow-up period, reassuringly, the vast majority proportion of participants still exhibited detectable COVID-19 antibodies, meaning they likely benefit from some protection against COVID-19 months after being vaccinated.