The alkyl-lysophospholipids edelfosine and miltefosine induce apoptosis in Leishmania infantum promastigotes. The finding that edelfosine-induced cell death can be regulated by the ectopic expression of the antiapoptotic and proapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family of proteins Bcl-X(L) and Hrk suggests that this process is similar to apoptosis in eukaryotic cells.