One possible way to go about doing this is to use the "fit" function, which creates the fit to the data in x and y with any custom model. The following code can be used as a starting point:
ft = fittype( @(a1,a3,x) a1*x+a3*x.^3 )
f = fit(x,y,ft)
The "fit" function requires an input argument object of type "fittype", which is created using the "fittype" function. The documentation pages below explain in greater detail how to use the "fit" and "fittype" functions, as well as detailed examples:
I hope this helps!