XB130: A novel adaptor protein in cancer signal transduction.

Adaptor proteins are functional proteins that contain two or more protein-binding modules to link signaling proteins together, which affect cell growth and shape and have no enzymatic activity. The actin filament-associated protein (AFAP) family is an important member of the adaptor proteins, including AFAP1, AFAP1L1 and AFAP1L2/XB130. AFAP1 and AFAP1L1 share certain common characteristics and function as an actin-binding protein and a cSrc-activating protein. XB130 exhibits certain unique features in structure and function. The mRNA of XB130 is expressed in human spleen, thyroid, kidney, brain, lung, pancreas, liver, colon and stomach, and the most prominent disease associated with XB130 is cancer. XB130 has a controversial effect on cancer. Studies have shown that XB130 can promote cancer progression and downregulation of XB130-reduced growth of tumors derived from certain cell lines. A higher mRNA level of XB130 was shown to be associated with a better survival in non-small cell lung cancer. Previous studies have shown that XB130 can regulate cell growth, migration and invasion and possibly has the effect through the cAMP-cSrc-phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt pathway. Except for cancer, XB130 is also associated with other pathological or physiological procedures, such as airway repair and regeneration.