One team reports in the Journal of the American Chemical Society progress toward an insulin–free diabetes treatment that requires fewer injections.

Non–invasive insulin–dependent systems that include hydrogels and polymers have developed in the laboratory, but they also can trigger these complications. So Jianzhong Du and colleagues wanted to develop a method that would be easy to use and that would avoid side effects.

The researchers nicknamed their treatment the “sugar sponge.” It’s an injected lectin–coated polymer vesicle that sopped up and bound glucose when glucose levels were high, and released the sugar when its concentrations were low in laboratory tests. They also tested the sponge in mice with type–I diabetes, and within two days, they saw antidiabetic effects. The researchers say that the sponge could one day serve as a treatment for either type–I or type–II diabetes.

The article is titled, "Sugar–Breathing Glycopolymersomes for Regulating Glucose Level."