Ammonia/ammonium flour

More recently Braganca, Faulkner, and Quastel (B15) showed that this inhibition of acetylcholine synthesis in brain slices by ammonia is consistent only in the diminution of bound acetylcholine. They further showed that the addition of inhibitors of glutamine synthesis, such as methionine sulfoxide, ethionine sulfoxide, and methionine sulfoximine (the toxic product, causing convulsions, formed in flour chemically aged with nitrogen trichloride) would partially reverse the ammonium inhibition. These observations were confirmed and extended to a wide variety of ATP-requiring reactions by Weil-Malherbe. In support of this suggestion was the observation that ammonia is taken up by the brain in hepatic coma (B8). The observations are valid and have been confirmed, but the interpretation of the data and the hypothesis are questionable. A quantitative basis for the evaluation of this mechanism can... 

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