ABSTRACT
Metal elements play a pivotal role in many aspects of living organisms, from the stabilization of nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) to a variety of proteins.1-5 One of the most peculiar features of metal elements is their ability to be oxidized and bind to (or otherwise interact with) electron-rich biological molecules, such as proteins and DNA. Natural evolution has led living organisms to employ metal elements extensively in a wide variety of tasks. For instance, approximately one-third of known enzymes contains metals.1,6 Metal ions promote a number of chemical processes including bond cleavage and formation, electron transfer, and radical reactions.6 These processes are central to many biological phenomena, such as DNA synthesis and replication, cellular energy production, and O2 generation, sensing and transport.6 Iron and copper are essential elements in mammalian metabolism: iron is the metal constituent of heme in hemoproteins such as hemoglobin and myoglobin and copper is relatively abundant in the ferroxidases ceruplasmin and haphaestin and in other enzymes such as cytochrome c oxidase.7 Magnesium is, with few
1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................1 1.2 Density Functional Theory and Its Application to Biological Systems............3 1.3 Discussion .........................................................................................................6
