Porsche-Wiebking, E.: New N-methyl-o-aspartate antagonists for the treatment of stroke.Drug Dev. Res. 17:367-375, 1989. Current research indicates that the neurotoxicity of the excitatory amino acid neurotransmitter glutamate contributes to the cell loss associated with a variety of neurological disease states. In particular, glutamate neurotoxicity has been proposed to play a key role in ischemicihypoxic neuronal cell death and the development of ischemic brain damage. Certain N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptorichannel complex antagonists have been shown to protect against experimentally induced hypoxiciischemic injury. Concepts for the development of novel NMDA antagonists for the treatment of stroke are discussed.