Fig. 4. Disulfiram, a RALDH inhibitor, improves visual contrast sensitivity in rd10 mice.

(A) Experimental design. Rd10 mice were trained and tested at P35 to P40 (test #1), randomly separated into control or disulfiram groups, and tested again 40 days later at P75 to P80 (test #2). Training session 3 (Fig. 3B) was used as refresher training every ~10 days. (B and C) Responses of individual mice in the control (B) and disulfiram (C) groups. The response speed (latency) to the visual stimulus at 100% contrast is shown for each trial, at early degeneration and before intervention (test #1, left) and at late degeneration and after intervention (test #2, right). (D) Results of 13 mice on test #1. Success rate is plotted as a function of contrast; values are shown as means ± SEM. Retrospective analysis of mice for test #1, according to condition in test #2, found no significant differences (P > 0.05 for all contrasts, Mann-Whitney test; table S4). (E) Contrast sensitivity curve obtained later in degeneration and following 40 days of treatment with disulfiram or no treatment in control mice. **P < 0.01 (for 64% contrast, P = 0.005; for 100% contrast, P = 0.002), Mann-Whitney test (see also table S4).