TUG1 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Tug1 was found to have a significantly decreased expression in prefrontal cortex, and, interestingly, a significantly up-regulated expression in the lumbar spinal cord area, the one most affected by ALS, at both the early pre-symptomatic stage at 8 weeks (Figure 4A) and symptomatic stage at 18Weeks (Figure 4B).