Chapter 13: Metal Complexes Relating to Biological Functions

In living organisms, various metal ions are involved in maintaining vital activities. In particular, metal-containing proteins can be regarded in a broad sense as metal complexes with peptides as ligands. Therefore, knowledge of metal complex chemistry is essential for understanding the function of metal ions in biological processes, which has been developed as bioinorganic chemistry. A wide variety of metal-containing proteins and associated biological molecules exist in living organisms, expressing diverse functions such as transport, conversion, and synthesis of substances and uptake and storage of metal ions. This chapter first outlines the background of bioinorganic chemistry and surveys the representative metal ions used in vivo, then provides an overview of the well-studied metal-containing proteins and biologically related molecules, in particular for the functions of transport and activation of small molecules, with a brief introduction of their structural and functional model complexes. Finally, topics of metal ions in relation to diseases and drugs, and metal ion uptake, transport, and storage are described.