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We present a comprehensive investigation on the different role of CO in carboxy- neuroglobin i) as ligand of the heme group in the active site forming a bond with the heme iron and ii) dissociated from the heme group but still trapped inside the active site, focusing on two specific orientations, one with CO perpendicular to the plane defined by the distal histidine of the enzyme (form A) and one with CO located parallel to that plane (form B). Our study includes wild type carboxy-neuroglobin and nine known protein mutations. Considering that the distal histidine interacting with the heme group can adapt two different tautomeric forms and the two possible orientations of the dissociated CO, a total of 36 protein systems were analyzed in this study. Fully optimized geometries and vibrational frequencies were calculated at the QM/MM level, followed by the local mode analysis, to decode CO bond properties. The intrinsic bond strengths derived from the local mode analysis, complemented with NBO and QTAIM data, reveal that the strength of the CO bond, in the hexacoordinate (where CO is a ligand of the heme group) and pentacoordinate (where CO is dissociated from the heme group) scenarios, is dominated by throughmore »bond and through space charge transfer between CO and Fe, fine-tuned by electrostatic and dispersion interactions with the side chain amino acids in the distal heme pocket. Suggestions are made as to advise on how protein modifications can influence the molecular properties of the coordinated or dissociated CO, which could serve the fine-tuning of existing and the design of new neuroglobin models with specific FeC and CO bond strengths.« less