Canadian researchers have isolated a gene that appears to make people at risk for developing Crohn's disease, a debilitating illness that causes parts of the digestive tract and bowel to inflame.

There is no known cure for Crohn's, and finding the gene doesn't offer much hope to the 100,000 Canadians who suffer from it.

But it could help identify people at risk for developing the disease in the future, opening the door to more effective and earlier treatment.

The findings appeared in the online April 11 edition of Nature Genetics.

Katherine Siminovitch, a University of Toronto professor who led the team of researchers, said isolating the gene is a step towards improved diagnosis and better therapies.

"You really want to catch this disease in the early stages, because that's probably your best time to put in a therapy that might put patients into remission," Siminovitch said. "And maybe even eradicate the disease -- something we can't do now."

Crohn's disease causes areas of the throat, stomach or bowel to erupt in painful lesions. The only successful treatment is surgery to remove diseased tissue.

The gene Siminovitch's team identified produces a protein that sits on the cell surface. It regulates how substances enter and exit the cell.

"In a majority of Crohn's disease patients, this protein functions improperly and allows toxins easier access to the cell," the study found.

A test for this protein malfunction will help physicians distinguish between Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, the other major form of inflammatory bowel disease.

"It doesn't mean we're necessarily going to stop the disease in its tracks," Michael Howarth, of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada, told CTV's Avis Favaro.

"But it does mean that they will be able to start treatment earlier, so that people have less difficulty with the disease over time."