Publications

ABS0148 PAR2 Deletion in the osteoblast lineage affords long-term cartilage protection in experimental osteoarthritis

Huesa C, McGrath S, Dunning L, Vieri ML, McCulloch K, McIntosh KA, Cole J, Plevin R, Rowan D, van ‘t Hof R, Ferrell WR, Lockhart J, Goodyear CS

Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases Vol 84, pp. 1733-1734 (2025)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ard.2025.06.1193

IL-1β stimulates a novel axis within the NFκB pathway in endothelial cells regulated by IKKα and TAK-1

Craig Rachel, McIntosh Kathryn, Ho Ka Ho, McCulloch Ashley, Riley Christopher, Lawson Christopher, MacKay Simon P, Paul Andrew, Coats Paul, Plevin Robin

Biochemical Pharmacology Vol 232 (2025)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcp.2024.116736

Design and synthesis of novel aminoindazole-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine inhibitors of IKKα that selectively perturb cellular non-canonical NF-κB signalling

Riley Christopher, Ammar Usama, Alsfouk Aisha, Anthony Nahoum G, Baiget Jessica, Berretta Giacomo, Breen David, Huggan Judith, Lawson Christopher, McIntosh Kathryn, Plevin Robin, Suckling Colin J, Young Louise C, Paul Andrew, Mackay Simon P

Molecules Vol 29 (2024)

https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29153515

Proteinase activated receptor 2 : a novel therapeutic drug target

Lozon Yosra, McIntosh Kathryn, Plevin Robin

2nd AUU Health and biomedical postgraduate Symposium (2024)

Advanced Immunology by the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

McIntosh Kathryn

(2024)

Beyond the Vaccine

McIntosh Kathryn

(2023)

More publications

Teaching

Recently awarded Senior fellowship status (Aug 2025) of the Higer Education Academy based on my vast teaching experience and leadership skills. 

I was previously awarded my PG Cert in Advanced Academic studies in 2016 where I also become a recognised fellow of the higher education academy.

I am the deputy director of the PGT programme within SIPBS, the Year 4 lead for Biomolecular Sciences and the current NSS champion reporting to and a member of FLEC. I am also co-director of the Biomedical Sciences employment liasion committe and I am the director of the participation, experience, engagement and resilience (PEER) committee within Biomolecular Sciences. The PEER committee has student experience, engagement and well being as it's core focus. As such student participation and voice within the group is intergral to it's success. 

In regards to my teaching I have module co-ordinator roles across Pharmacology and Immunology within BMS. I teach across year 1 -3 in Immunology and from years 2-4 in Pharmacology. I also coordinate and deliver on the MSc Advanced Pharmacology module. I am module lead for the year 2 Immunology labs and semester 2 labs in year 3.

My on-going discipline-specific research generates lab projects for both Honours and Masters level students, and enables competitive summer intership applications.  My discipline-specific research informs my teaching practice and is central to year 4 advanced Pharmacology. I was previously part of the BMS accreditation team and lead the redesign of the critical analysis projects at Masters level. I am currently involved with the redesign of the Introductory content for Immunology, both lectures and labs. 

From 2014 I taught and then co-ordinated the PP904 compulsory PhD class on abstract writing, poster presentation and presentation skills for 8 years. I was also actively involved in the organisation of the initial CPU summer school run here in SIPBS.

Research Interests

Current Collaborators: 

CXCL12-IKKa project = Professor Valerie Speirs (University of Aberdeen) and Dr Craig Jamieson (UoS)

PAR2-Osteoarthrits project = Dr Anne Crilly (University of the West of Scotland), and Dr Craig Jamieson (UoS).

IKK-alpha signalling project = Prof Robin Plevin (UoS). 

Professional Activities

Frontiers in Immunology (Journal)

Peer reviewer

5/7/2024

Advanced Immunology course by university of Strathclyde, Glasgow

Recipient

6/2/2024

Beyond the Vaccine

Recipient

20/11/2023

British Pharmacological Society (Publisher)

Peer reviewer

31/7/2023

19th World Congress of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology 2023

Participant

2/7/2023

A novel role for IL-1b in non-canonical NFkB signalling in U2OS cells

Speaker

2/7/2023

More professional activities

Projects

Development of novel PAR2 antagonists to treat inflammatory disease

McIntosh, Katy (Principal Investigator)

Based on the recently published PAR2 crystal structure, a novel series of PAR2 antagonists were developed - namely the AZ series. However these require further target validation and elucidation of there pharmacological properties, and from these novel derivatives will be developed.

05-Jan-2024 - 29-Jan-2029

Evaluation of protease activated receptor 2 (PAR2) as a novel therapeutic target for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Crilly, Anne (Principal Investigator) McIntosh, Katy (Academic)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive and highly debilitating lung condition now reported as being the third leading cause of death worldwide.The disease has no cure and is characterised by the presence of chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
Protease activated receptor 2 (PAR2) is a G-protein coupled receptor which has been shown to have a role in inflammatory disease pathology. The receptor has a unique mode of activation involving the cleavage of the N-terminal by specific serine proteases to reveal a tethered ligand which binds to extracellular loop two of the receptor causing cell signalling. Once activated, PAR2 will regulate the secretion of pro-inflammatory mediators, such as interleukin 6 (IL-6) and IL-8. While the role of PAR2 in COPD pathogenesis has been relatively underexplored, preliminary studies from our group have shown the receptor to be expressed in human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) from normal and COPD (or diseased) lung (DHBEC). The COPD lung is a rich source of proteases, with many of the serine proteases present, such as mast cell tryptase, neutrophil elastase and matriptase able to cleave PAR2, potentially driving inflammation. Using normal HBEC and the PAR2 activating protease, matriptase, we have generated an in vitro model reflective of the COPD lung environment. We have shown increased secretion of the inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and IL-8, with increasing concentrations of matriptase (Figure 1), suggesting a role for PAR2 in this process. In addition to driving inflammation, PAR2 has also been reported as being able to ‘crosstalk’ with innate pathogen sensing receptors, namely toll-like receptor (TLR) 2, 3 and 4. COPD patients are susceptible to both viral and bacterial infection, with non-typeable Haemophilus Influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae most commonly reported and sensed via TLR2/3 and TLR4 respectively (expressed on lung epithelial cells). We hypothesise that a novel molecular axis linking PAR2 / inflammation and infection exists in bronchial epithelial cells and that PAR2 targeted treatment may be an attractive therapeutic approach in reducing COPD inflammation linked to proteases and infection

17-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2025

Targeting a novel alternative nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) axis in an osteosarcoma cell line

McIntosh, Katy (Research Co-investigator) Farhan, Mohammad (Researcher)

01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2026

TAK-1 inhibition prevents cytokine-mediated CXCL12 production in a bone cancer cell line

McIntosh, Katy (CoPI)

01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2024

Development and preclinical validation of novel PAR2 inhibitors for the treatment of Osteoarthritis

McIntosh, Katy (Principal Investigator) Crilly, Anne (Co-investigator) Jamieson, Craig (Co-investigator) Plevin, Robin (Co-investigator) Rattray, Zahra (Co-investigator)

01-Jan-2020 - 30-Jan-2022

Preventing the damaging effects of cancer chemotherapy and radiation treatment on human endothelial cells targeting the JNK pathway

Plevin, Robin (Principal Investigator) Boyd, Marie (Co-investigator) McIntosh, Katy (Co-investigator)

Preventing the damaging effects of cancer chemotherapy and radiation treatment on human endothelial cells targeting the JNK pathway

01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2023

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