Noncovalent Interactions between Trimethylamine N-Oxide (TMAO), Urea, and Water.

Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and urea are two important osmolytes with their main significance to the biophysical field being in how they uniquely interact with proteins. Urea is a strong protein destabilizing agent, whereas TMAO is known to counteract urea's deleterious effects. The exact mechanisms by which TMAO stabilizes and urea destabilizes folded proteins continue to be debated in the literature.