In Alzheimer's disease, age-related cellular changes such ascompromised energy production and increased radical formation areworsened by the presence of AGEs as additional, AD specificstress factors. Intracellular AGEs (most likely derived frommethylglyoxal) crosslink cytoskeletal proteins and render theminsoluble. These aggregates inhibit cellular functions includingtransport processes and contribute to neuronal dysfunction anddeath. Extracellular AGEs, which accumulate in ageing tissue (butmost prominently on long-lived protein deposits like the senileplaques) exert chronic oxidative stress on neurons. In addition,they activate glial cells to produce free radicals (superoxideand NO) and neurotoxic cytokines such as TNF-α. Drugs, whichinhibit the formation of AGEs by specific chemical mechanisms(AGE-inhibitors), including aminoguanidine, carnosine,tenilsetam, OPB-9195 and pyridoxamine, attenuate the developmentof (AGE-mediated) diabetic complications. Assuming that `carbonylstress' contributes significantly to the progression ofAlzheimer's disease, AGE-inhibitors might also becomeinteresting novel therapeutic drugs for treatment of AD.