Ammonium chloride is a lysosome inhibitor and a weak base as described in a published paper, Article Ammonium chloride, an inhibitor of phagosome-lysosome fusion...
.However NH4+ is a weak acid, I don't understand why NH4Cl is described as a weak base.
Could anybody help me with why NH4Cl is a weak base to lysosome?
Thanks a lot!
Dear Zehui Qu, I'm not an expert in the biochemical aspects. However, what I can say in general is the a dilute aqueous solution of ammonium chloride is weakly acidic (pH ca. 5.5). This is because ammonium chloride formally results from combining the strong acid HCl with the weak base NH3.
Dear Frank T. Edelmann , many thanks for your kind answering. Actually, I also think a solution of ammonium chloride is weakly acidic. I currently tend to think that the ammonium ions provided by the ammonium chloride solution may prevent the ionization of certain acidic substances in the lysosome through certain reactions, resulting in an increase in the overall pH value. So the author calls it a weak base in some sense.
You can Refer this -
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1919441
http://europepmc.org/article/PMC/2118961
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