The Role of MAPK in Drug-Induced Kidney Injury

This paper focuses on the role that mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) play in drug-induced kidney injury. The MAPKs,
of which there are four major classes (ERK, p38, JNK, and ERK5/BMK), are signalling cascades which have been found to be
broadly conserved across a wide variety of organisms. MAPKs allow effective transmission of information from the cell surface to
the cytosolic or nuclear compartments. Cross talk between the MAPKs themselves and with other signalling pathways allows the
cell to modulate responses to a wide variety of external stimuli. The MAPKs have been shown to play key roles in both mediating
and ameliorating cellular responses to stress including xenobiotic-induced toxicity. Therefore, this paper will discuss the specific
role of the MAPKs in the kidney in response to injury by a variety of xenobiotics and the potential for therapeutic intervention at
the level of MAPK signalling across different types of kidney disease.