The University of Western Australia

Professor Vimal Kapoor

Professor (and Equity and Diversity Adviser)
School of Medicine and Pharmacology - Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Anaesthesiology Unit

Contact details

Address

School of Medicine and Pharmacology - Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Anaesthesiology Unit
The University of Western Australia (M510)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia

Phone

9346 2506

Email

vimal.kapoor@uwa.edu.au

Qualifications

BSc PhD Edin.

Biography

A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and after a brief stay at the Karloniska Instuite, moved to Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide. Taught biochemistry, molecular biology and pharmacology at James Cook University for a few years (living on Magnetic Island), and then took over Medical Pharmacology at the University of New South Wales. Moved to Perth (and loving it) in 2005/6 to continue teaching Medical Pharmacology and research into new drug discovery.

Key research

* Cardiovascular Pharmacology. Spent several years looking at the neurotransmitters involved in the medulla oblongata and spinal cord circuits in the central control of blood pressure and the role of endogenous modulators of these pathways, especially kynurenic acid - an endogenous glutamatergic antagonist.

* The role of the kynurenine pathway in the regulation of cell survival. The kynurenine poathway leads to the de novo formation of NAD which has critical roles not just in energy metabolism but also in cellular signalling - not just in Ca release but also as a vital substrate for DNA repair enzymes and NAD-dependent deacetylators (ie. PARP and SIR enzymes respectively)

* Alterations of kynurenine pathway metabolism in health and disease. KAT, the main synthetic enzyme of kynurenine acid (an endogenous NMDA antagonist) and related enzymes (D-amino acid oxidase, DAAO) appear to be altered in Schizophrenic patients. We are trying to use computational teachniques (Virtual Molecular Docking/screening) on linux clusters to develop novel drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia using these targets (KAT and DAAO).

Publications

RS Grant, H Naif, SJ Thuruthyil, N Nasr, O Takikawa and V Kapoor. (2000) Induction of indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase in primary human macrophages by HIV-1 is strain dependent. J. Virol, 74: (9) 4110-4115.

YJ Feng, BF Bowden and V Kapoor (2000) Screening marine natural products for selective inhibitors of key kynurenine pathway enzymes. Redox Report 5: 95-97.

RS Grant, H Naif, M Espinosa and V Kapoor. (2000) IDO induction in IFN-gamma activated astroglia: A role in improving cell viability during oxidative stress. Redox Report, 5: 101-104.

RS Grant, H Naif, SJ Thuruthyil, N Nasr, T Littlejohn, O Takikawa and V Kapoor. (2000). Induction of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in primary human macrophages by HIV-1. Redox Report, 5: 105-107.

GJ Guillemin, DG Smith, SJ Kerr, GA Smythe, V Kapoor, PJ Armati and BJ Brew. (2000) Characterisation of kynurenine pathway metabolism in human astrocytes and implications in neuropathogenesis. Redox Report, 5: (2-3) 108-111.

GJ Guillemin, SJ Kerr, GA Smythe, DG Smith, V Kapoor, PJ Armati, J Croitoru, BJ Brew. (2001) Kynurenine pathway metabolism in human astrocytes: a paradox for neuronal protection. J. Neurochem. 78:842-853.

JBJ Kwok, R Kapoor, T Gotoda, Y Iwamoto, Y Iizuka, KE Isaacs, VV Kushwaha, WB Church, P Schofield and V Kapoor. (2002) A missense mutation in kynurenine aminotransferase-1 in spontaneously hypertensive rats. J. Biol. Chem. 277: 35779-35782.

X Wang, V Kapoor, GA Smythe. (2003) Extraction, Identification and Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Active Principles from Medicinal Chinese Herbs. Amer J Chinese Med 31 (6): 927-944.

RS Grant, and V Kapoor. (2003) Inhibition of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activity in IFN-gamma stimulated astroglioma cells decreases intracellular NAD levels. Biochem. Pharmacol. 66: 1033-1036.

E Teber, E Crawford, K Bolton, D Van Dyk, P Schofield, V Kapoor and W Church. (2006) Djinn Lite: a tool for customised gene transcript modelling, annotation-data enrichment and exploration. BMC Bioinformatics 7:33.

Kapoor R, Lim KS, Cheng A, Garrick T and Kapoor V. (2006) Preliminary evidence for a link between schizophrenia and NMDA-glycine site receptor ligand metabolic enzymes, d-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) and kynurenine aminotransferase-1 (KAT-1). Brain Res. 1106:205-10.

Guillemin GJ, Cullen KM, Lim CK, Smythe GA, Garner B, Kapoor V, Takikawa O, Brew BJ. (2007) Characterization of the kynurenine pathway in human neurons. J Neurosci 27(47):12884-92.

Y Wang, JF Keaney, G McKenzie, PK Witting, J-P Stasch, M Hahn, D Changsirivathanathamrong, BJ Wu, HJ Ball, SR Thomas, V Kapoor, DS Celermajer, AL Mellor, NH Hunt and R Stocker (2009). Tryptophan metabolism to kynurenine regulates vascular tone in systemic inflammation. Submitted to Nature Genetics.

Roles, responsibilities and expertise

Teaching Pharmacology to Medical, Science and Pharmacy students. University administration on the Undergraduate medical curriculum committee and the safety commitee. Trying to develop new interactive teaching materials in Flash.

Funding received

Funded in the past by NHMRC, small ARC and Ramaciotti and R Cooper Foundation. Currently on a joint iVEC super computer grant.

Honours and awards

Tohuku Medical Association Medal

Research profile

Research profile and publications