Current developments of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) inhibitors

The cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is regarded as a major regulator of inflammation and a key mediator that counter-regulates the inhibitory effects of glucocorticoids within the immune system. Therefore, MIF is a therapeutic target for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. In addition, MIF was found to be implicated in cancer pathogenesis. Current therapeutic strategies for targeting MIF focus on inhibiting its signaling activity by small molecules or modulating its biological activities using anti-MIF neutralizing antibodies. In this review, the structure and biological functions of MIF are briefly outlined. Then, the available inhibitors of MIF are systematically summarized. Finally, the recent advances that have been made in the computer-aided drug design and molecular modeling studies of MIF are reviewed.