Anyone who knows someone with Crohn’s Disease or suffers from it themselves knows how debilitating this condition can be. Scientists have recently discovered that a protein secreted by our immune defenders might actually help to stop the disease from developing. What’s more interesting, however, is how this led them to figure out that a common stomach virus, the norovirus, prevents these proteins from protecting the gastrointestinal tract from this autoimmune disease.
New Study Shows Role of Norovirus In The Development of Crohn’s Disease
Crohn’s Disease is an autoimmune disease that affects the digestive tract. It is an inflammatory bowel condition in which the body’s immune system mistakes its own digestive tract for foreign invaders and attacks them. It then all but destroys the lining of the digestive tract, making digestion difficult and affecting the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Researchers from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine recently discovered that our immune defenders, called T-cells, secrete a protein that sends signals to the immune system to stop this attack.
This protein is called apoptosis inhibitor 5 (API5), and it essentially acts as a shield and adds extra protection for the digestive tract against the immune system. This protein even protects the digestive tracts of those who are genetically predisposed to Crohn’s Disease. What the researchers then discovered is that what often causes Crohn’s to develop despite the API5 protein is another trigger that gives it the extra push. That often comes from an infection such as the highly contagious norovirus.
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Less API5 To Help Out
Upon studying people both with and without Crohn’s Disease, the researchers found that those with the illness had five to ten times fewer API5-producing T-cells in the tissues of their digestive tracts than those without Crohn’s. In mice experiments, the researchers gave some mice with Crohn’s injections of API5 while giving nothing to the control group. The group that received the injections all survived, while the group that did not all died.
“Our findings offer new insight into the key role that apoptosis inhibitor 5 plays in Crohn’s disease,” said the lead author of the study gastroenterologist Dr. Yu Matsuzawa-Ishimoto. “This molecule may provide a new target for treating this chronic autoimmune illness, which has proven difficult to manage over the long term.”
The study suggests that those who have the genetic predisposition to Crohn’s, as they have less of this API5 protein, are pushed into the autoimmune because of the norovirus infection. Currently, they still do not know if API5 injections are actually safe for human use. If they were, doctors could treat norovirus patients with low API5 levels with these to hopefully prevent them from developing Crohn’s Disease. At the very least, they hope that this discovery could lead them to find more effective treatment and management of the condition.
In their report, they wrote: Norovirus, a common infection that causes vomiting and diarrhea, is one of several viruses and bacteria thought to trigger disease onset in Crohn’s patients, but the field does not know why.
Not Just Norovirus
The researchers also say that they believe it is not just norovirus that can push people into Crohn’s Disease. Rather, it could be many other germs and illnesses that affect the immune system. Study co-author Ken Cadwell, Recanati Family Professor of Microbiology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York says that it is simply the presence of another germ or virus that causes the push.
“Although this doesn’t tell you it’s due to a norovirus or something else, it does give us more confidence that something happened to these patients that’s similar to norovirus infection in mice,”
As already mentioned, the goal is that this new discovery will provide some hope for those suffering from Crohn’s Disease.
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