Effects of oral administration or implantation of disulfiram on aldehyde dehydrogenase activity in human blood.

The general characteristics of the NAD-dependent aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) present in blood were examined to find suitable assay conditions for activity measurements with whole blood samples from disulfiram-treated patients. The ALDH activity was measured as the rate of acetaldehyde disappearance. The ALDH activity in blood from alcoholics before disulfiram treatment was 39% lower than that found in blood from control subjects. Disulfiram caused a decreased ALDH activity in vitro. Similarly, a decreased activity was found in blood from patients treated with disulfiram orally (400 mg/day). The activity declined to a level being 60% of the control activity during the first week of treatment. A significant inhibition was observed 1 week after the treatment was discontinued. Implantation of 1 g of disulfiram in patients pretreated for 10 days with oral disulfiram did not cause a delayed return of ALDH activity, suggesting that the amounts of disulfiram released were too low to affect the ALDH activity in blood.