A pharmacological approach to ameliorate Alzheimer's disease (AD) has not yet been established. In the present study, we investigated the pharmacological characteristics of the recently identified memory-enhancing compound, ISRIB for the amelioration of AD. ISRIB potently attenuated amyloid β-induced neuronal cell death at concentrations of 12.5–25 nM, but did not inhibit amyloid β production in the HEK293T cell line expressing the amyloid precursor protein (APP). These results suggest that ISRIB possesses the unique pharmacological property of attenuating amyloid β-induced neuronal cell death without affecting amyloid β production.