“…The rationale for using memantine in AD patients is based on the hypothesis that blockade of NMDA receptormediated excitotoxicity can help preserve neuronal structure and function (Lipton, 2006(Lipton, , 2007Wenk et al, 2006). The ability of memantine to protect neurons against NMDA-or glutamate-induced excitotoxicity has been shown in vitro (Erdö and Schäfer, 1991;Chen et al, 1992;Weller et al, 1993), and in animal models of neurodegenerative disease (Wenk et al, 1995(Wenk et al, , 1997(Wenk et al, , 2006MiguelHidalgo et al, 2002). Therefore, it has been proposed that memantine can improve cognition in AD and perhaps even slow disease progression by blocking NMDA receptormediated excitotoxicity (Ditzler, 1991;Frankiewicz et al, 2000;Reisberg et al, 2003;Lipton, 2006).…”