Sara Garcia Ptacek

Sara Garcia Ptacek

Assistant Professor | Docent
Visiting address: Blickagången 16, 14152 Huddinge
Postal address: H1 Neurobiologi, vårdvetenskap och samhälle, H1 Klinisk geriatrik Garcia Ptacek, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am a group leader, assistant professor and neurology specialist working in research and clinical management of cognitive diseases at Karolinska Institutet and at the Cognitive Clinic, Karolinska University Hospital in Solna. 


    I conduct registry research with the Swedish Dementia Registry, and other national and international cohorts, to improve and personalize drug prescriptions in patients with dementia. Personalizing nutrition to improve cognitive outcomes is another important research line. 

    I also study COVID, particularly in regards to geriatric populations and 
    cognitive risks. I collaborate with the European Dementia with Lewy bodies
    (E-DLB) consortium.


    2023 Docent in Neurosciences at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
    2019 Fellow of the European Board of Neurology (FEBN)
    2017-2020: Postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Swedish Society of Medical
    Research.
    2017 Prize for Clinical Thesis from the Spanish National Royal Academy of
    Medicine
    2015 Excellence prize for PhD thesis from Universidad Complutense de Madrid
    *2015 PhD Thesis. "Dementia: preclinical stages and mortality in Swedish
    cohorts".* Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. Supervisors: Maria Luz
    Cuadrado (Universidad Complutense de Madrid-tutor and thesis director) and
    Maria Eriksdotter (Karolinska Institutet-thesis director). Cum Laude and
    European Mention.
    https://eprints.ucm.es/34377/1/T36508.pdf [1]
    [1] https://eprints.ucm.es/34377/1/T36508.pdf

Research

  • *Medication repurposing to slow cognitive decline in dementia:*
    Medication repurposing is a cost and time-effective way to discover new
    treatments. Swedish registers are a unique tool to detect medication
    candidates for repurposing. The Swedish Dementia Registry (SveDem) has
    >100000 patients and repeated measures of cognition over time (measured with
    the Mini-Mental State Examination—MMSE), making it perfect to examine
    whether certain medications are associated with less cognitive decline in
    patients with dementia. We propose a study combining traditional cohort
    studies and newer artificial intelligence (machine learning) techniques to
    detect medications associated with slower cognitive decline in patients from
    SveDem. We will test pre-specified hypotheses since we suspect specific
    medications are better candidates to prevent cognitive decline, but we will
    also let the machine learning algorithms explore the data to find
    associations that we do not suspect in advance. Finally, the candidate
    medications will be tested in animal and cellular models to determine the
    mechanisms of their effects.
    *Influence of COVID-19 and the pandemic on care, treatment and cognition of
    persons with dementia in Sweden:*
    The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the health and livelihood of most people
    worldwide but has disproportionately affected individuals in disadvantaged
    positions. We aim to examine the incidence and consequences of Covid-19 and
    the greater consequences of the pandemic in individuals with dementia. We
    identified individuals with Covid-19 from SmiNet and age, sex and region
    matched controls. Merged registries provided information on socioeconomic
    position in the years before and after Covid-19, social support and care,
    medications, dementia diagnosis and other comorbidities and mortality.
    Because Covid-19 disrupts care in patients with dementia, we use the Swedish
    Dementia Registry (SveDem), to determine how patients with dementia,
    specifically, fared during the pandemic. At present, we are have obtained
    this dataset and are actively seeking funding for this project.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Medication repurposing in dementia: selecting brain-friendly medications and establishing a new indication
    Center for Innovative Medicine
    1 January 2026 - 31 December 2028
  • Medication repurposing to slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer's dementia
    ALF Medicin-Region Stockholm
    1 January 2026 - 31 December 2028
  • Neuroprotection with Repurposed Cardiovascular Drugs in Alzheimer's Disease
    Alzheimerfonden
    1 January 2025 - 31 December 2025
  • Innovative ways to fight Alzheimer´s disease: Fluid biomarkers and intracellular therapies
    Private donation from Leif Lundblad Family and others
    1 October 2023 - 30 September 2026
  • Translational identification of medication repurposing candidates for Alzheimer's dementia
    Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 1 January 2026
    Dementia creates a great personal and societal burden and there are currently no treatments to stop memory loss. Many patients with dementia take medications to treat other conditions, eg. high blood pressure and cholesterol. Some of these medications may have central effects on the pathophysiological processes leading to dementia. Medication repurposing is a cost and time-effective way to discover new treatments. Swedish registers are a unique tool to detect medication candidates for repurposing. The Swedish Dementia Registry (SveDem) has >100000 patients and ca. 144000 measures of cognition over time (measured with the Mini-Mental State Examination—MMSE), making it perfect to examine whether certain medications are associated with less cognitive decline in patients with dementia. Cholesterol and kidney function affect treatment and cognition and are available for 25000 patients. We propose a study combining traditional cohort studies and newer artificial intelligence (machine learning) techniques to detect medications associated with slower cognitive decline in patients from SveDem. We will test pre-specified hypotheses since we suspect specific medications are better candidates to prevent cognitive decline, but we will also let the machine learning algorithms explore the data to find associations that we do not suspect in advance. Finally, the candidate medications will be tested in animal and cellular models to determine the mechanisms of their effects.
  • Causal inference using Dynamic Bayesian Networks to find medications related to slow cognitive decline in dementia: Studies from the Swedish Dementia Registry
    Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation 2022
    1 July 2022 - 1 July 2023

Employments

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 2021-2027

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2023

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