immunomodulatory imide drugs (IMiDs)

IMiDs (immunomodulatory imide drugs) refers to a clinically and pharmacologically important class of small-molecule drugs, not a specific molecular target or receptor. This drug class includes thalidomide and its analogs (lenalidomide, pomalidomide, mezigdomide, iberdomide), all of which share an imide molecular group and act primarily through the protein cereblon—a substrate receptor for the CRL4 E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. IMiDs exert multi-faceted effects, such as immune modulation, antiproliferative and anti-angiogenic effects, by binding to cereblon, altering substrate specificity, and promoting the degradation of key cellular proteins. These drugs are mainly used in the treatment of multiple myeloma and certain autoimmune or inflammatory diseases[1][2][4][5][7]. The term IMiDs is often confused with IMIDs (immune-mediated inflammatory disease)[3][6], but IMiDs refers to the drug class, not a disease or protein target. "IMiDs" does not refer to a unique therapeutic target, enzyme, receptor, or gene; it is a class of drugs that work by modulating targets such as cereblon[1][7]. For structured data on a molecular target, you likely want to query for "Cereblon" (synonym: CRBN), not "IMiDs".

Other names

Immunomodulatory imide drugimmunomodulatory drugsthalidomide analogsthalidomide derivativesIMIDs