Tropomodulin-1 belongs to a conserved family of cytoskeletal proteins that play an important role in modulating actin cytoskeleton dynamics. TMOD proteins function as actin capping proteins, which stabilize actin filaments by inhibiting both elongation and depolymerization. While many proteins have been identified that cap the rapidly growing barbed end of actin filaments, TMODs are the only proteins thus far identified that cap the slowly growing pointed end. A research study in triple-negative breast cancer cells identified TMOD1 as a target of NF-κB signaling, and showed that increased TMOD1 expression was associated with enhanced tumor growth in a mouse xenograft model. Molecular expression of TMOD1 was also identified as part of a unique gene expression signature that could discriminate ALK-negative anaplastic large-cell lymphoma from other malignancy subtypes.
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