By Rachel Barron

StanfordUniversity scientists said Wednesday that a marijuana-like chemical could help treat Parkinson’s.

Part of the treatment looks to endocannabinoids, which are naturally occurring chemicals found in the brain, and are similar to the active compounds in marijuana and hashish.

Researchers said they took a drug already on the market to treat Parkinson’s, and combined it with an experimental compound being developed by privately held Kadmus Pharmaceuticals that can boost the level of endocannabinoids in the brain.

The result was a drastic improvement in test subjects that had a condition similar to the neurodegenerative disease. But those experimental subjects were mice.

Researchers still have a long way to go before such a drug combo could be tested on humans.

But in a disease that has no cure for the more than 1.5 million people it afflicts in the United States, breakthrough medications are always welcome. To that end, Stanford researchers think their findings could potentially lead to a new way to fight the disease.

Stanford scientist said that within 15 minutes of getting the drug combo the mice went from being frozen in place to moving around freely.

Before people start hitting up their local cannabis club, researchers cautioned their findings don’t mean smoking a doobie is a valid therapeutic approach for treating Parkinson’s.

Although there are no medications on the U.S. market available to stop the disease from progressing, there are drugs approved to help patients manage symptoms associated with Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s is a chronic, progressive disorder of the central nervous system. A characteristic attribute of disease is the loss of cells in a section of the brain called the substantia nigra. Those cells produce dopamine, a chemical messenger that transmits signals within the brain.

Loss of dopamine causes critical nerve cells in the brain, or neurons, to become overly active, leaving patients unable to control their movement in a normal manner.

Part of the drug combo used by Stanford researchers included quinpirole, which mimics dopamine.

When the mice got quinpirole alone researchers saw limited improvement.

But when they gave the mice quinpirole, in combination with Kadmus’ experimental drug URB-597(also called KDS-4103), which slows the enzymatic breakdown of endocannabinoids in the brain, the animals improved dramatically.

Founded in 1998, Kadmus is a venture-backed company that has raised about $25 million in one round of financing.

The Irvine, California-based company is gearing up to start trials this year for the drug to treat acute and inflammatory pain, as well as pain derived from nerve damage.

Kadmus also has plans to see what the drug can do for anxiety and depression.

Jeff Parrott VP of business development for Kadmus said he was unaware of the work being done at Stanford, or the researchers’ study on the work to appear Thursday in Nature.

But it’s not uncommon. In fact, “it’s happened several times,” he said.

He suspects researchers picked up on the drug’s existence through a 2003 paper published in Nature by the company’s co-founder Daniele Piomelli. Mr. Piomelli, who is also a professor at the University of California, Irvine wrote about the drug’s ability to reduce anxiety in animals.

The company signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the university for the drug. The first patent covering the drug is expected to be issued to the university on February 13.