I've always taken it with a grain of salt when people claimed to be deadly allergic to marijuana.

The other day while speaking about marijuana a person over hearing the conversation joined in and told me "if I get near marijuana it will kill me, I'm deadly allergic"

What a joke I thought...I've heard of marijuana allergies, but my understanding is they are hay-fever like in nature or similar to seasonal plant allergies...

Nobody has ever died from marijuana, so was this particular person so special that out of the whole species only they were susceptible to marijuana death?

...I guess not, after some research I've found several cases of people claiming that exposure to marijuana will swell their throat shut...

http://health.usnews.com...be-allergic-to-marijuana

Regardless of the purported possibility of death by marijuana exposure due to allergies, can anybody cite an incident in which any human actually has died from an allergic reaction to marijuana?


The article in the link above states:

It’s unclear what the exact allergens are – be it the pollen, THC​ (the main ingredient of cannabis that alters brain function) or another compound of the marijuana plant Cannabis sativa, the Annals paper says. In all likelihood, people react to different compounds or combinations of compounds, says Dr. James Sublett​, an allergist-immunologist and president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. “A lot of people think of an allergen as just the pollen grain, but actually, it’s at the biochemical level,” he says

...


I'm still extremely skeptical as to the severity of these marijuana allergies, I seriously doubt that marijuana allergies could result in death, I acknowledge certain individuals in very rare cases may be susceptible to potentially threatening or harmful reactions, but seeing as how nobody has ever died from marijuana allergies before, I'm very skeptical.

I hope that the anti-marijuana folks don't latch onto this making absurd claims that marijuana can kill certain people...

Is work being done to identify this potential allergen in the cannabis plant?

Regardless of my personal views I would like to know more

... and again I'm sure allergies to marijuana are real, though my understanding is that they were not any worse than seasonal allergies or allergies to other plants...


(I'm not trying to discount those who suffer from this allergy, it must be terrible, and not just the not being able to smoke marijuana part, I'm sure the symptoms are terrible as well and I sympathize with those people)

-eg

I haven't seen it first-hand, but it doesn't surprise me at all that someone could have a deadly allergy to cannabis. In my line of work, I routinely see people who go into anaphylaxis from all manner of things. The most well known ones are peanuts and latex, but I've also seen tomatoes, medications, seafood, apples, peppers, and more all trigger potentially deadly responses.

The idea that cannabis, which is rich in bioactive compounds, might cause catastrophic immune response isn't that far fetched at all.

Let's also not forget the asthma factor. It's not cannabis-specific, but I know of emergencies in which someone has an asthma attack because someone in their house was smoking.

Blessings
~ND

I suppose your right.

It just came as somewhat of a shock to me, I understand allergies of all kind can be serious, I just figured since I had never heard of an allergy related death induced by cannabis that it probably doesn't happen...

I may have come off as somewhat sarcastic and uncaring in my initial post, and I apologize, I was never trying to discount anybody's illness, I was just a bit surprised, I mean I've always known about marijuana allergies, but always assumed they were similar to seasonal allergies.

Yeah, after much consideration it does seem possible...

But again, I can not find a single case of an actual death resulting from cannabis allergies.

As far as asthma goes, THC is actually very good for asthma, THC is a bronchodilator, and provided the patient eats the cannabis, it should actually help the asthma...I've even known cannabis smokers with asthma who claimed that cannabis worked as an efficient bronchodilator, providing relief in asthma symptoms while they were stoned, it was just hell for them to smoke to get stoned...(but I can also see how the smoke could aggravate an asthmatic persons symptoms)


I guess I've taken deadly cannabis allergy as a joke for so long that it's a little hard for me to swallow, but I can't argue with science, and I will ultimately side with the scientific evidence, even if it's counter to long held assumptions of mine.

-eg

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21272987

http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=685832

http://www.sussmanresear...actions-to-marijuana.pdf

Trust me when I say that second hand cannabis smoke can trigger asthmatic reactions, regardless of THCs broncodilator activity. I've responded to those calls.

Blessings
~ND

Cannabis contains more than just cannabinoids like thc and cbd. It contains many other compounds, such as terpenes and terpenoids.

From an immunological perspective, there are 4 types of hypersensitivity response mechanisms and the classic dramatic 'anaphylaxis' which may kill is deemed type 1.
Typically this is a consequence of protein fragments eliciting an antibody response mediated by antibodies of the IgE class resulting in a biochemical cascade which produces the observed effects.

Heres a study done on cannabis sativa, and its felt that proteins are responsible:


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih....pmc/articles/PMC3726218/

17 samples is hardly a large enough sample size. Especially given the rarity of cannabis allergies.

"It is not known if these IgE reactive oligosaccharides are similar to other cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants that are monovalent and while they exhibit extensive cross-reactivity during analysis of plant extracts in vitro they have limited activity in SPT (skin prick test)." (Nayak et al, 2013)

In other words, not enough data. Cross reactivity is a huge problem, especially with antigen-antibody complexes.

Spots 6-10 on the Western blot are oxygen evolving enhancer proteins, which is a chloroplast protein. I had a look at other chloroplast protein allergens, in particular ryegrass. The only Cannabis allergen study is the quoted one, so I had to look at other species.

"There are at least six groups of allergenic proteins in rye-grass pollen, identified by their different physicochemical and immunological characteristics. The principal allergen is considered to be a glycoprotein of 27-35 kD." (Kraft and Sehon, 1993)

So I ran an NCBI BLAST of the proteins responsible for oxygen evolving enhancer proteins which are found in photosystem II. I ran a comparison of these proteins from Lolium multiflorum (ryegrass) and Cannabis sativa.

photosystem II D1 protein (chloroplast) [Lolium multiflorum] Accession number: ACA64050.1

photosystem II protein D1 (chloroplast) [Cannabis sativa] Accession number: YP_009123053.1

I have attached the results of the BLAST.



I'd say that the allergenic culprits are definitely within spots 6 - 10. The most suspicious is Spot 7 and Spot 10. Due to the 99% similarity, I think it's safe to assume the Cannabis allergens are also 27-35 kD.


I could be overthinking this way too much. Any critiques on my approach are more than welcome.


Kraft, D. and Sehon, A. (1993). Molecular biology and immunology of allergens. Page 32. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Nayak, A., Green, B., Sussman, G., Berlin, N., Lata, H., Chandra, S., ElSohly, M., Hettick, J. and Beezhold, D. (2013). Characterization of Cannabis Sativa Allergens. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 131(2), p.AB214.

I think you're mis-understanding my post; I was trying to highlight the mechanism of severe immediate allergies as being dependant on proteins rather than THC, terpenes or terpenoids etc. These proteins can have oligosaccharides attached to them (which strictly speaking makes them glycoproteins); these short sugars, if I understand the paragraph quoted above, are the cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants mentioned. Their limited activity in SPT would suggest that they are not the provokers of immediate anaphylaxis by themselves. This doesn't however rule out a role for them in causing a more delayed allergic response; an interesting example of such a delayed response is a delayed allergic response to the consumption of red meat in those who have developed IgE antibodies to a modified molecule of the sugar galactose. Heres a paper about this relatively poorly understood condition:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih....pmc/articles/PMC3057034/

I thought I was agreeing with your post about proteins. My comment was just regarding the small sample size, which does not render the data invalid.

From my very rudimentary BLAST analysis, it seems that the oxygen evolving enhancer protein is responsible for the positive IgE allergenic results in the Nayak et al study.


Do you think the mechanism of action of the delayed response in the red meat eaters is similar to the cannabis tea drinker in the Nayak study? (whoa that's a long sentence)

Yes, I've known people who smoke, any kind of smoke, even sage, marijuana, tobacco, incense, etc...Will trigger horrible asthma attacks...

I was only meaning to say that the THC is a Bronchodilator, and provided it could be ingested with out upsetting the asthma symptoms, you figure it would help...



-eg

I found some images which cite terpenes which exist in cannabis as well as other species, if the allergies were terpene related, possibly an affected person would also have allergies to the other plant sources of these terpenes?

-eg

Sorry, I read and respond to the posts in order, my post regarding terpenes seems fairly ill-thought provided the given information...

Are you fairly certain the mechanism of these allergies is protein dependant?

I knew the allergies more likely than not were not THC dependant.

-eg

I don't have Corpus' medical background, but much simpler organic compounds have been known to trigger serious allergic reaction - certain pharmaceuticals will trigger reactions like anaphylaxis, which can be fairly simple compounds (NSAIDS like iburophen spring to mind, some antibiotics do so as well).

Whether in the case of reactions to cannabis specifically, I don't know, but my hunch is that it's probably a response to proteins, since that's generally more common, but it's not impossible that it could be otherwise.

There have been anecdotal reports that dronabinol can cause anaphylatic reactions in patients taking the pharmaceutical preperation, but no controlled studies on the phenomena.

Blessings
~ND

Yes, proteins are almost invariably involved; this can include glycoproteins and lipoproteins too.

The issue of nickel causing allergies is often mentioned in discussions such as this as it clearly can precipitate allergic (contact) dermatitis and is not a protein; however its ability to produce allergies involves it first binding to a protein and the resulting complex provokes the response. In this example nickel is acting as a hapten, the fancy name for an inert molecule which is immunogenic when attached to a protein.

Thank you for clarifying, you will have to forgive if I'm a bit slow with some of this stuff as it has not been an area of in depth study in my past, leaving me to conduct research as I go, I have decent knowledge of chemistry but my physiology isn't very strong.

Glycoptotiens have a sugar attached

Lipoproteins are fats surrounded by phospholipid molecules.

And it's these proteins that are responsible for the allergic response involving cannabis?

I understand the bit about the proteins binding to a hapten, in your example nickel, and this complex serves to illicit the allergic response...

I'm having some trouble putting it all together with cannabis...are there specific proteins that have been identified in cannabis? Or is it just been determined to be a protein dependant response? And what is the nature of this response regarding cannabis?


Again forgive me, as the physiological actions involved with the allergic response are not an area I've looked into in any depth, and I'm having to research as I go.

-eg

Although the literature hasn't confirmed it, the DNA sequence comparison did. I just compared the same type of protein for cannabis and another plant, ryegrass. Based on the literature, there are allergens in ryegrass that is between 27-35 kD in size. The results from the cannabis study showed allergens that fit that size. This is confirmed by the 99% similarity in DNA sequence between the two species.

It's not only ryegrass that has that protein. Camellia danzaiensis, Arabidopsis thaliana and Glycine max all have 99% similarity to the cannabis allergenic glycoprotein. DNA sequence determines structure which determines function. If the sequence is the same, the function is the same.

However this class of protein is called a oxygen evolving enhancer protein. It probably has something to do with the photosynthesis of the plant, as can be read about here:

http://link.springer.com...1007%2FBF00194521#page-1

Although the literature hasn't confirmed it, the DNA sequence comparison did. I just compared the same type of protein for cannabis and another plant, ryegrass. Based on the literature, there are allergens in ryegrass that is between 27-35 kD in size. The results from the cannabis study showed allergens that fit that size. This is confirmed by the 99% similarity in DNA sequence between the two species.

It's not only ryegrass that has that protein. Camellia danzaiensis, Arabidopsis thaliana and Glycine max all have 99% similarity to the cannabis allergenic glycoprotein. DNA sequence determines structure which determines function. If the sequence is the same, the function is the same.

However this class of protein is called a oxygen evolving enhancer protein. It probably has something to do with the photosynthesis of the plant, as can be read about here:

http://link.springer.com...1007%2FBF00194521#page-1[/quote]

Nice Bodhisativa!

and eg- lipoproteins are proteins with a covering of phospholipids.

This is brilliant!

Wait, so would the cannabis allergy affected people have similar allergies to to any oxygen evolving enhancer protein producing plant?

Again forgive me, as I'm not very knowledgeable in this area, but I'm very interested and would like to understand this...(I also feel kind of bad for my initial "grain of salt reaction" to cannabis allergies, and feel I need to understand this simply because it was counter to my previous assumptions)

This can hit anyboday, even long term (40+ years)cannabis smokers. After taking a cannabis break for 7 years, we started to smoke our organic sunlight balcony grown bud last august .

Since then we harvested nice fat kolas and cured them. Actually we wanted to give them away to friends, but theses jars kept looking at we (and we could not resist).

Then this is what happened (during the first month): Each time we smoked (the kind that still has to be cut with scissors), we experienced extreme itching all over our boday.

In fact, we scratched our arms, feet and legs bloody. The itching was worse when we went outside into the cold (winter). We also experienced heart palpitations and extreme nervousness (we couldn't even face the birdppl, our friends).

Guess what: since then we have smoked every evening (one large spliff, but not moar)
and the urticaria went away and so did the heart palpitations (not the nervousness).

Strange....

Maybe it has to do with curing. When we first experienced the urticaria, the somewhat cured bud had still still some of the original plant aromatics (like mango resin, skunk, haze, train wreck..etc scents) but now (the 4+ months cured) bud smells completely different, moar like hash some even bad (like dry cow shit and hash)

Perhaps also our boday adjusted to it, but it's okay now, but still, we know now that it can cause allergies, and these could be life threatening when you get a swelling in your throat or air pipe (or if the heart stops beating).

Once the jars are empty (soon), we will likely stop again....


BTW: we already experienced the urticaria while we was trimming and handling the fresh bud (without gloves) but at that time, we simply pushed the thought away...