Shimadzu Journal Vol. 09 - Clinical Research

Significance of the Topic

Analytical techniques such as spectroscopy and mass spectrometry have become central to disease diagnostics, therapeutic monitoring and advanced research in fields ranging from virology to nanotechnology. The COVID-19 pandemic and the scale of contemporary clinical studies have highlighted the need for rapid, accurate and minimally invasive methods for early detection of infection, quality control of biospecimens and personalized treatment monitoring.

Objectives and Study Overview

This issue presents expert perspectives and three investigative reports focusing on: (1) the rapid corrosion of silver nanorods in aqueous environments and its impact on plasmonic sensing; (2) the development of probe electrospray ionization (PESI) metabolomics for routine evaluation of blood sample quality; and (3) HPLC and LC-MS/MS methods for quantifying COVID-19 therapeutic agents. We also introduce collaborative initiatives and new Shimadzu instruments aimed at enhancing clinical analytics.

Methodology and Instrumentation Used

• Silver Nanorod Corrosion Study: Glancing-angle deposition PVD, SEM with EDS, UV-Vis spectroscopy (integrating sphere), scanning probe microscopy (topography and Kelvin probe modes), Raman spectroscopy.
• PESI Metabolomics for Sample QC: One-step methanol precipitation of plasma, Probe ESI (Shimadzu DPiMS-2020) single-quad MS acquisition in two minutes from 2 µL sample.
• Antiviral Drug Quantification: Automated solid-phase extraction, HPLC-fluorescence detection for favipiravir, and fully automated LC-MS/MS for simultaneous remdesivir and GS-441524 quantification.

Main Results and Discussion

• Corrosion of Silver Nanorods: Dissolved oxygen in non-degassed water induces rapid oxidation and morphological coarsening within hours, leading to loss of plasmonic resonance critical for sensing applications.
• PESI-MS Sample Quality Control: A two-minute workflow identified 18 metabolic features distinguishing plasma processed immediately from samples delayed by 3 h, with >0.95 AUC across five machine learning classifiers, demonstrating high-throughput viability.
• COVID-19 Therapeutic Monitoring: Robust methods were established for simultaneous measurement of remdesivir/GS-441524 by LC-MS/MS and of favipiravir by HPLC-fluorescence, supporting clinical dosing and drug interaction studies.

Benefits and Practical Applications

• Informs sensor design and storage protocols for metallic nanoscale devices in biological media.
• Provides a rapid, user-friendly platform for routine biospecimen quality assessment in clinical and biobanking workflows.
• Enables multiplexed monitoring of antiviral drugs, streamlining therapeutic decision-making in COVID-19 treatment.

Future Trends and Opportunities

Analytical platforms are trending toward fully integrated, automated solutions that combine high-resolution imaging, ambient-ionization mass spectrometry and AI-driven data analysis. Emerging multiplex MS techniques and novel sample introduction methods will expand routine clinical applications into precision medicine, early disease screening and personalized pharmacotherapy.

Conclusion

Shimadzu’s studies demonstrate the power of combining robust sample handling, rapid data acquisition and intelligent analysis to meet clinical research and diagnostic needs. These workflows set the stage for next-generation platforms capable of high-throughput, minimally invasive testing and tailored patient care.

Instrumentation Used

• Shimadzu UV-3600 UV-Vis Spectrophotometer with integrating sphere
• Tescan Mira SEM with Oxford EDS
• Shimadzu SPM-9700 HT with KFM module
• Horiba T64000 Raman Spectrometer (532 nm laser)
• Shimadzu DPiMS-2020 Probe ESI-MS
• Shimadzu LabSolutions LC-MS/MS software
• Shimadzu AOC-30 automated sample preparation

References

1. Stagon S, Gasparov L, Huang H. Degradation mechanism of Ag nanorods for SERS. Sci Rep. 2017;7:16580.
2. Bordag N et al. Towards fast, routine blood sample quality evaluation by PESI metabolomics. medRxiv. 2021.
3. Andersen MK et al. Simultaneous detection of zinc and its pathway metabolites using MALDI MSI of prostate tissue. Anal Chem. 2020;92:3171.
4. Wang H et al. Performance of nucleic acid amplification tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2 in pooled specimens. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020.
5. Kamlage B et al. Quality markers addressing preanalytical variations of blood and plasma processing. Clin Chem. 2014;60:399.