TBK1 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Thus, to achieve clarification in sporadic ALS cases, we performed immunoblotting using the postmortem tissues of sporadic ALS patients and found that levels of an active form of TBK1, which is phosphorylated at Ser 172 (pTBK1), were significantly decreased in the brains (Fig. 1 A–C) and spinal cords (Fig. 1 D–F) of the patients with ALS.