Scientists may have found a culprit for what can trigger Crohn’s disease. Cadwell and his colleagues discovered the norovirus connection to Crohn’s fortuitously when they were studying mice that had been engineered to develop the intestinal disease. Many of the mice had gotten norovirus and “the mice developed intestinal abnormalities only in the presence of a viral infection,” Cadwell explained. On a hunch, the researchers treated the mice that had developed the rodent version of Crohn’s with the human version of the API5 protein. Crohn's treatments can worsen infectionsThat would be welcome news to Heather Schlueter, who learned three years ago that her excruciating abdominal pain was due to Crohn’s disease.

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