"A particular chunk of alpha-synuclein produced by AEP's scissors can be found in samples of brain tissue from patients with PD, but not in control samples ..."

"The researchers also observed that the chunk of alpha-synuclein generated by AEP is more likely to aggregate into clumps than the full length protein ..."

Emory press release:
Drug discovery: Alzheimer's and Parkinson's spurred by same enzyme | Emory University | Atlanta, GA

Research paper:
Asparagine endopeptidase cleaves alpha-synuclein and mediates pathologic activities in Parkinson's disease, Zhentao Zhang et al., Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, July 3 2017.
Asparagine endopeptidase cleaves α-synuclein and mediates pathologic activities in Parkinson's disease (PDF Download Available)