Structural characterizations of a unusual peptide CORO1C-47aa encoded by circRNA hsa-circ-0000437 associated with endometrial cancer

Circular RNAs, which have covalently closed ends, is a special type of non-coding RNAs. Recent studies reveal that they are associated with various biochemical pathways. One such involvements of circular RNAs is in the onset of different types of cancers. Though the circular RNAs are known as non-coding RNAs, however, some of them are found to possess the capacities to code for proteins. One such circular RNA is hsa-circ-0000437 which is known to code for a short peptide referred to as CORO1C-47aa. The peptide has anti-angiogenic activity and are associated with the prevention of endometrial cancer. However, till date only the amino acid sequence of the peptide is known and no structural details of the peptide are available. Therefore, in this work, our aim was to predict how the peptide would fold and what could be its possible ligand binding sites. We used computational tools to determine the structure of the peptide. The structure was refined by molecular dynamics simulations. The possible binding sites and the binding partners of the peptide were also predicted. From this structure function analysis study, we tried to elucidate the possible mechanism of the involvements of the peptide in the onset of endometrial cancer. This is the first report on the structural characterization of the peptide. This study may therefore be useful in determining the structures of new drug candidates for the treatment of endometrial cancer.