巨噬细胞迁移抑制因子,连接炎症和肿瘤的关键蛋白

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor, a critical link between inflammation and cancer

巨噬细胞迁移抑制因子(MIF)是一种经典的促炎因子,参与先天性和适应性免疫应答调节。大量研究显示,MIF在多种肿瘤组织中表达显著增加,促进肿瘤生长、转移、血管新生,并诱导形成促肿瘤免疫微环境。鉴于MIF在肿瘤发生、发展过程中的重要促进作用,靶向MIF被认为是治疗肿瘤的潜在策略。本文对MIF的特性、分布特点、信号通路、在炎症、肿瘤中的生物学功能以及靶向MIF药物开发等方面的最新进展进行综述。

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor（MIF） is a classical pro-inflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in the innate and adaptive immune regulation.In recent years,a large number of studies have demonstrated that the expression level of MIF is significantly increased in a variety of tumor tissues and MIF promotes the occurrence and development of tumors.MIF participates in the regulation of tumor growth,metastasis,angiogenesis,as well as induces and maintains the tumor microenvironment.Targeting MIF has been considered as a candidate strategy against cancer.In this review,the structural features,the signaling pathway,the biological functions of MIF are briefly outlined.Moreover,approaches that target MIF in the treatment of cancer are also summarized.