Funding: the study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of the scientific project № 19-315-90114.

Author contribution: Soldatov VO — the main idea, design of the experiment, ophthalmoscopy, writing an article, design of primers for gene expression assay; Kukharsky MS — the main idea, design of the experiment, writing an article, western blot analysis; Soldatova MO — RNA isolation, qPCR; Puchenkova OA — retina and spinal cord collection, RNA extraction, qPCR; Nikitina YuA — preparation of animal populations, genotyping, western blot analysis; Lysikova EA — preparation of animal populations, genotyping, western-blot analysis, writing an article; Kartashkina NL — interpretation and scoring of ophthalmoscopic picture; Deykin AV — consultation on the main idea and design of the study; Pokrovskiy MV — consultation on the main idea and design of the study.

Compliance with ethical standards: animal procedures were approved by the local ethics committee of the Belgorod State National Research University (protocol № 5 / 19–25 dated september 25. 2019). All manipulations were carried out in compliance with the requirements of the International Recommendations of European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes (1997).