Fig. 7. Competitive inhibition pattern and the inhibition of MIF-mediated abrogation of glucocorticoid activity by compound 11.

a, b Nonlinear regression analysis and Lineweaver−Burk plot showing the inhibitory constant (K_i) and type of inhibition. c, d Primary microglial cells were pretreated for 30 min with dexamethasone (DEX; 0.1 μM) and recombinant MIF (0.25 μM) in the presence or absence of the compounds (5-50 μM) prior to LPS (0.2 μg/mL) stimulation. At 24 h after LPS stimulation, the levels of NO in the supernatants were measured using Griess reagents (c), and the levels of IL-6 were measured using ELISA (d). *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 compared with the LPS + DEX + MIF group.