An Iowa State professor’s discovery of a way to help AIDS patients gain muscle mass was unveiled to 12,000 scientists and activists at the World AIDS Conference in Geneva last week.

Steven Nissen, professor of animal science and founder of MTI BioTech Inc., located in the ISU Research Park, invented Juven, a dietary supplement. Nissen said the product will help slow down the muscle deterioration process.

Muscle loss occurs when disease or trauma places additional nutritional demands on the body. These stresses can diminish appetite, causing the body to use protein from muscle stores. Over time, muscles become smaller, weaker and less flexible, according to a press release.

“In a few months, an AIDS victim can go from looking normal to wasting away,” Nissen said. “We breathe through muscles, and if you can’t cough you get pneumonia,” he said.

The results of the two-year study involving the nonprescription amino acid formula show dramatic results for AIDS patients that could have far-reaching impact over the next few years.

The clinical study involved AIDS patients who had lost at least 5 percent of their body weight during the preceding two months and compared patients taking Juven to those taking a placebo in a double-blind test.

During the eight-week study, patients taking Juven gained an average of 6 1/2 pounds, 5 1/2 pounds of it muscle, while the placebo group continued to lose an average of 1 1/2 pounds of muscle over the eight-week period.

“We designed the product to protect these patients from further loss, so we assumed that as our body of data grew, the results would level out. Instead they just got stronger,” Nissen said.

Nissen said they performed the study on AIDS patients because the changes are larger in AIDS patients.

“There are a hundred cancers and only one AIDS,” he said. “[AIDS] is more homogenous than the specific types of cancer. Over the next two years we plan to take this further to cancer victims and others suffering from terminal diseases,” Nissen said.

The key ingredient in Juven is HMB (beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate), which Nissen discovered after years of research at ISU. Because HMB helps prevent muscle breakdown, it quickly became the No. 1 or No. 2 sports supplement on the market, Nissen said.

“We knew that all three ingredients in Juven, HMB, L-glutamine and L-argine, were safe and independently supply key building blocks for the muscle cell,” Nissen said.

The name Juven was developed by Nissen and the nine employees of MTI BioTech after playing around with the term “rejuvenate.” Nissen said he shortened it to Juven because he heard that two syllables are usually involved in a successful trademark.

“It pretty much tastes like Tang,” Nissen said. “We spent a lot of time designing it so people would like it.”

In the next three months, MTI Biotech will come out with different flavors for the drink and a bar.

“A study showed that 70 percent of the people prefer orange, so we started with that,” Nissen said.

Nissen said regardless of the taste, Juven produces results.

“This stuff works as good, if not better, than the drugs prescribed today,” Nissen said.

More amazing than the results is the cost that separates Juven from other muscle-loss therapies, Nissen said. Juven costs $89 for a 15-day supply, about $5 a day, while growth hormones wholesale for $1,750 a week, according to a press release.

However, Nissen said because insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid do not yet cover the cost of Juven, it will be an uphill battle to make the formula as widely used as the prescription formulas.

“[Payment] comes out of [the patients’] operating funds,” he said. “It’s incredible the drugs these people have to take. Even a dollar a day is a lot of money to these folks,” Nissen said.

Nissen said he feels use of Juven will be widespread in six months. The product is not too far from being available in health food stores like GNC, he said.