Overview
- Researchers at Spain’s CNIO report in Cancer Research that tumor cells release MIF, which binds the CD74 receptor on brain macrophages and microglia to reprogram these immune cells to support metastasis.
- Ibudilast, a drug known to block the MIF–CD74 interaction, slowed brain metastasis in animal models and in tests on fresh patient-derived samples.
- The drug is already approved for asthma in some countries such as Japan and reaches the brain, which makes testing it for brain metastasis practical, though benefit in patients remains unproven.
- CNIO says it aims to move toward a clinical trial and credits its RENACER living metastasis biobank and METPlatform for enabling these rapid, translational tests.
- The team also observed the same CD74-linked reprogramming in disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis, a finding that widens the potential impact as up to one in three cancer patients develop brain metastases and lack targeted treatments.