Why is ammonia highly toxic - Biology - Excretory Products and their Elimination

Question

Why is ammonia highly toxic??

N Dubey · Accepted Answer

Dear Student When ammonia levels in the brain cells are high, lot
of ammonia combines with lot of alpha-ketoglutarate to form lot of
glutamine in brain cells This results in lack of
alpha-ketoglutarate and accumulation of glutamine in the brain
cells This leads to two events- A TCA (Tricarboxylic acid) cycle is
the main energy producing pathway in the brain cells Lack of
alpha-ketoglutarate for TCA cycle results in impairment of TCA
cycle resulting in energy deficiency in brain cells B Glutamine has
osmotic property When levels of glutamine rise in the cells due to
above mentioned phenomenon, lot of water from outside the cells
move into the cells due to osmosis This results in swelling of the
brain cells Hence energy deficiency and cell swelling result in
impaired functioning of brain cells in ammonia toxicity This
specially affects astrocytes in brain Hence ammonia is very toxic
Regard