Computational Modeling of circCOPA-Antibody Complex for Novel Glioblastoma Detection and Therapeutic Applications

Glioblastoma Multiforme is an aggressive, late-stage form of brain cancer that originates in the brain or spinal cord. circCOPA99aa is a novel protein linked to the early stages of Gliomas and can be considered a biomarker that would aid in detecting this aggressive brain cancer. An antibody is a protein that our immune system uses to defend against specific antigens (bacteria, viruses) inside us. It binds to them, allowing our T-cells and other immune system cells to attack the antigen. Recently, the role of the circCOPA protein in the regression of glioblastoma disease has been identified and can be used as a biomarker to detect glioblastoma. We hypothesize that the antibody interacts with the binding site of the circCOPA protein and thus can be used in a detection process. Therefore, we have performed computational modeling of the circCOPA-antibody system. The amino acid sequence we obtained from UniProt was uploaded on AlphaFold3 to get the 3D structure and better understand its tertiary structure. Then, we used HDOCK to determine the potential binding sites for antibodies on the CircCOPA99aa protein. Based on the visual analysis and binding energy calculations, antibody 1A5F was identified as the most appropriate antibody. This research could be very influential to the scientific community as it aids in detecting gliomas in patients in highly early stages and acts to make treatments more effective, as finding antibodies that would bind to this would help us control cell division in the tumor.