1: Apoptosis. 2008 Jan;13(1):11-32. Renal cell apoptosis induced by nephrotoxic drugs: cellular and molecular mechanisms and potential approaches to modulation. Servais H, Ortiz A, Devuyst O, Denamur S, Tulkens PM, Mingeot-Leclercq MP. Faculty of Medicine, Unité de Pharmacologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire, Université Catholique de Louvain, UCL 7370 Avenue E. Mounier 73, Brussels, 1200, Belgium, helene.servais@wanadoo.be. Apoptosis plays a central role not only in the physiological processes of kidney growth and remodeling, but also in various human renal diseases and drug-induced nephrotoxicity. We present in a synthetic fashion the main molecular and cellular pathways leading to drug-induced apoptosis in kidney and the mechanisms regulating it. We illustrate them using three main nephrotoxic drugs (cisplatin, gentamicin, and cyclosporine A). We discuss the main regulators and effectors that have emerged as key targets for the design of therapeutic strategies. Novel approaches using gene therapy, antisense strategies, recombinant proteins, or compounds obtained from both classical organic and combinatorial chemistry are examined. Finally, key issues that need to be addressed for the success of apoptosis-based therapies are underlined. PMID: 17968659 [PubMed - in process] Related Links New approaches and therapeutics targeting apoptosis in disease. [Pharmacol Rev. 2005] PMID:15914467 Apoptosis-based therapies and drug targets. [Cell Death Differ. 2005] PMID:15665817 Future direction of renal positron emission tomography. [Semin Nucl Med. 2006] PMID:16356795 The inhibitors of apoptosis (IAPs) as cancer targets. [Apoptosis. 2007] PMID:17573556 Oncogenes as novel targets for cancer therapy (part I): growth factors and protein tyrosine kinases. [Am J Pharmacogenomics. 2005] PMID:15952871