Diabetes patients would soon be able to take a nano-pill filled with insulin, an Indian researcher has claimed. This will relieve them of taking painful injections for controlling blood sugar.

 

Researcher Chandra Sharma of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology has presented the work at a biomaterials conference at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

 

Presenting his work Mr Sharma also revealed that they have already developed the capsule form of the insulin and have also tried it on pigs and rats.

 

According to a media report, 40 percent of the 135 million people diagnosed with diabetes around the world, are dependent on insulin injection, which is very painful and inconvenient.

 

What could be very interesting the researcher, Mr. Sharma has developed a method to package the insulin in nano-particles so that it is both protected from stomach acids and is able to get through the intestinal wall and into the liver and bloodstream.

 

The nano-particles, which are smaller than 100 nanometers across, are water attracting on the inside and water-repelling on the outside.

 

Once in the bloodstream the nano-particles break down in response to the pH of blood and release the insulin. The research has been funded by the Indian government.