A Step Toward Health Equity for Veterans: Evidence Supports Removing Race From Kidney Function Calculations.

Background: The practice of race-based medicine fails to recognize that race cannot be used as a proxy for genetic ancestry and that racial and ethnic categories are complex sociopolitical constructs without biological basis. Clinical algorithms and equations that incorporate race modifiers and are currently considered standard for diagnosis and management of disease are appropriately being scrutinized for lack of biological plausibility and their role in exacerbating health inequities. In this paper, we review the history, evidence, and implications of using a Black race coefficient when calculating estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the diagnosis and management of kidney disease.

SIRT6 Is Responsible for More Efficient DNA Double-Strand Break Repair in Long-Lived Species.

DNA repair has been hypothesized to be a longevity determinant, but the evidence for it is based largely on accelerated aging phenotypes of DNA repair mutants. Here, using a panel of 18 rodent species with diverse lifespans, we show that more robust DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair, but not nucleotide excision repair (NER), coevolves with longevity. Evolution of NER, unlike DSB, is shaped primarily by sunlight exposure.

Opioid drug poisonings in Ohio adolescents and young adults, 2002-2014.

Context: Opioids represent a drug class that adolescents and young adults intentionally misuse and abuse. When taken on their own or with other substances in this manner, opioids pose an increased risk of overdose and potential death.

Objective: To determine trends of opioid drug poisonings among adolescents and young adults in Ohio from 2002 to 2014 using Poison Control Center (PCC) data.