5th TMAU webinar : Fennessey - Preti - Reed

5th TMAU webinar provided by Rob Pleticha and rareconnect.org See additional answers to questions on the RareConnect site.

Paul Fennessey PhD :  Recognition of TMAU as disease entity and development of choline challenge test
George Preti PhD : Evaluation of individuals with malodor problems
Danielle Reed PhD : Genetics of TMAU

Our thank you goes to Drs. Reed, Fennessey, and Preti for their informative presentation. Since there wasn't enough time for all the questions to be answered, and since they requested that viewers submit questions for them to answer, we have copied and pasted the Q & A posted at this time in RareConnect. Thanks to all guests who also participated in asking very valuable questions.

Questions and Answers that we did not have time for during the webinar

• Mar-----: Ok, my understanding of the methylation process is when some compounds receive a methyl group, this "starts" a reaction (such as turning a gene on or activating an enzyme). When the methyl group is "lost" or removed, the reaction stops (or a gene is turned off or the enzyme is deactivated). With this in mind, couldn’t it be possible, by having a specific methylation problem, the enzyme may be deactivated, thereby causing a lack of ability to metabolize TMA?
• Dr. Reed: It is possible that the genomic DNA which codes for FMO3 could be blocked from transcription by either DNA methylation dynamics or through modificaiton to histones - or it could be that transcription factors which initiate FMO3 transcription are lacking in some patients. Right now there is no quick test to assess human FMO3 genomic methylation because it requires liver biopsy.

link to RareConnect site where additional Q&As may be noted.