These parasite MIF homologs are capable of altering the host immune response during infection, and play a role in immune evasion, invasion and pathogenesis.
Further, overexpression of miR-497 not only inhibited ERRα expression but also reduced MIF level and MMP9 activity, which led to significant decreases in cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of ERα negative breast cancer.
We have shown this major role for MIF using in vitro migration and invasion assays, in presence of different receptor inhibitors and achieving a drastic decrease in both processes using MIF inhibitor.
Indicative of an increased malignant potential, MIF over-expressing cells showed significant increase in their invasion ability in vitro, and tumor growth and metastasis in an orthotopic xenograft mouse model.