Diabetes patients can look forward to an easier way of controlling their blood glucose levels.
Instead of injecting insulin and taking antidiabetic medicines several times a day, they will be able to use a "nano-sized sugar sponge."
It has been developed by a team from Tongji University.
The sugar sponge, which has been tested on mice, is actually a lectin-bound glycopolymersome. The lectin will bind and store the glucose from its surrounding solution when the glucose concentration is too high, and release the glucose when the glucose concentration is too low, according to the university's Professor Du Jianzhong.