The current treatment for diabetes involves diet control, exercise, and anti-diabetic tablets or insulin injections.

Any breakthrough in diabetes treatment will be a boon for India which faces an epidemic of the disease, according to health experts.

Even in Canada which has population of just over 33 million, there are more than two million diabetics. This number is likely to reach three million by 2010. About 41,500 Canadians die each year because of diabetes which shortens life expectancy by 5 to 15 years.

The research paper has been published in the August issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.

'This paper complements our study that was published last year in Nature indicating that in the future, we may be able to design a drug to target the gut to lower glucose levels in patients with diabetes,' said Lam.