Proceedings of the 2015 National Toxicology Program Satellite Symposium.

The 2015 Annual National Toxicology Program Satellite Symposium, entitled "Pathology Potpourri" was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the American College of Veterinary Pathologists/American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology/Society of Toxicologic Pathology combined meeting. The goal of this symposium is to present and discuss diagnostic pathology challenges or nomenclature issues. Because of the combined meeting, both laboratory and domestic animal cases were presented. This article presents summaries of the speakers' talks, including challenging diagnostic cases or nomenclature issues that were presented, along with select images that were used for audience voting and discussion. Some lesions and topics covered during the symposium included hepatocellular lesions, a proposed harmonized diagnostic approach to rat cardiomyopathy, crop milk in a bird, avian feeding accoutrement, heat exchanger in a tuna, metastasis of a tobacco carcinogen-induced pulmonary carcinoma, neurocytoma in a rat, pituicytoma in a rat, rodent mammary gland whole mounts, dog and rat alveolar macrophage ultrastructure, dog and rat pulmonary phospholipidosis, alveolar macrophage aggregation in a dog, degenerating yeast in a cat liver aspirate, myeloid leukemia in lymph node aspirates from a dog, Trypanosoma cruzi in a dog, solanum toxicity in a cow, bovine astrovirus, malignant microglial tumor, and nomenclature challenges from the Special Senses International Harmonization of Nomenclature and Diagnostic Criteria Organ Working Group.

Oligodeoxynucleotide studies in primates: antisense and immune stimulatory indications.

Antisense oligodeoxynucleotide compounds (AS ODN) are being developed as therapeutics for various disease indications. Their safety and pharmacokinetics are most commonly evaluated in rodents and nonhuman primates. Traditional AS ODN are short, single strands of DNA, and they target specific mRNA sequences. Plasma clearance of AS ODN is rapid, broad tissue distribution occurs, and elimination is by nuclease metabolism. Structural modifications to AS ODN have been made to enhance their efficacy and improve their safety. A number of class effects are observed with AS ODN that are unrelated to the specific targeted mRNA sequence. Acute effects include activation of the alternative complement pathway and inhibition of the intrinsic coagulation pathway. In monkeys, rodents, and dogs given repeated doses of AS ODN, accumulation of AS ODN and/or metabolites occurs in the form of basophilic granules in various tissues, including the kidney, lymph nodes and liver. A new potential therapeutic application of ODN is that of immune stimulation. Immunostimulatory ODN (IS ODN) are being investigated for use in treating cancer, infectious disease, and allergy. For the development of both AS and IS ODN, primates will continue to be important for safety assessment.