Slimy goo from the skin of an exotic green and pink frog could provide a radical new treatment for diabetes.

Scientists say the South American paradoxical frog – so-called because it shrinks in size with age – secretes a substance from its skin which protects it from infection.

But researchers believe the molecule could stimulate the release of insulin – the vital hormone lacking in diabetes sufferers.

An artificial copy of the substance, pseudin-2, showed that it could be used to boost insulin production in people with Type 2 diabetes.

Even so, much more work must be carried out before the frog therapy is ready to be tested on human patients.

The research is being carried out by scientists at the University of Ulster and United Arab Emirates University.

Dr Yasser Abdel-Wahab, senior lecturer in biomedical sciences at the University of Ulster, said: “We are at an exciting stage with this research.

“More research is needed, but there is a growing body of work around natural anti-diabetic drug discovery that, as you can see, is already yielding fascinating results.”

Normally insulin is produced by cells in the pancreas in the right amounts needed to regulate blood sugar levels.

But in Type 2 diabetes either not enough is produced, or the body becomes resistant to the concentrations that are
available.

Currently there are 2.3 million diagnosed diabetes sufferers in the UK, most of whom have Type 2 diabetes.

The bright green and pink paradoxical frog, from Trinidad and the Amazon basin, is named because of its odd habit of shrinking with age.

As a tadpole, it can reach 27 centimetres in length, but adult frogs are only about four centimetres long.

Via news.sky.com