Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) catalyzes the water–gas shift reaction, which provides CO (through a nickelacarboxylate intermediate) for the biosynthesis of acetylcoenzyme A.
[9][10] The first example of a naturally-occurring arylmetal species, a pincer complex containing a nickel–aryl bond, has been reported to form the active site of lactate racemase.
This example illustrates the essential role of organometallic chemistry in nature, as few molecules outside of low-valent transition metal complexes reversibly bind alkenes.
[12] Carbon monoxide occurs naturally and is a transcription factor via its complex with a sensor protein based on ferrous porphyrins.
Organometallic compounds containing mercury (e.g., thiomersal) and arsenic (e.g. Salvarsan) had a long history of use in medicine as nonselective antimicrobials before the advent of modern antibiotics.
Titanocene dichloride displays anti-cancer activity, and dichloridobis[(p-methoxybenzyl)cyclopentadienyl]titanium is a current anticancer drug candidate.
Furthermore, there have been made studies utilizing exogenous semi-synthetic ligands; specifically to the dopamine transporter, observing increased resultant efficacy in regard to reward facilitating behavior (incentive salience) and habituation, namely with the phenyltropane compound [η6-(2β-carbomethoxy-3β-phenyl)tropane]tricarbonylchromium.