CASP3 and Alzheimer disease: However, these predictions are complicated by the evidence that caspase-3 can also contribute to the pathogenesis of AD and PD through its ability to cleave neuronal proteins such as amyloid precursor protein (APP) and Tau, an α-synuclein (α-Syn) and thereby influence the properties of the affected cells (Espinosa-Oliva et al., 2019).