MELODY has recruited more than 35,000 immunocompromised people to determine their immune response to the Covid-19 vaccination and assess future risk of infection, hospitalisation and survival
This project is led by Dr Michelle Willicombe at Imperial College. The RECORDER team have contributed the identification and recruitment of people with rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases (RAIRD), and the analysis of the RAIRD and lymphoid malignancy cohorts within the National Disease Registration Service.
Background
Our work had shown that people with Rare Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases (RAIRD) were at increased risk of severe outcomes following COVID-19 infection, and others’ work had shown increased risks among people who were immunosuppressed following solid organ transplants and treatment for lymphoid malignancies.
Aims
We aimed to recruit large numbers of people from three immunosuppressed cohorts: Rare Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases (RAIRD), solid organ transplants (SOTs) or with lymphoid malignancies (LM) iin order to:
1) Test for levels of protective antibodies following three or more COVID-19 vaccine doses
2) Investigate shielding behaviour, anxiety and depression symptoms, and find out about diagnoses and recent treatments in a self-reported online questionnaire
3) Investigate the association between COVID-19 antibodies and severe COVID-19 outcomes such as hospitalisation and death using routinely collected healthcare data.
Publications
Pearce, F. A., Lim, S. H., Bythell, M., Lanyon, P., Hogg, R., Taylor, A., Powter, G., Cooke, G. S., Ward, H., Chilcot, J., Thomas, H., Mumford, L., McAdoo, S. P., Pettigrew, G. J., Lightstone, L., & Willicombe, M. (2023). Antibody prevalence after three or more COVID-19 vaccine doses in individuals who are immunosuppressed in the UK: a cross-sectional study from MELODY. The Lancet Rheumatology, 5(8), e461–e473. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(23)00160-1
Discover more: MELODY study
Start date: November 2021