Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for DCR-AUD, the Company's investigational RNAi candidate for the treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD). AUD is a medical condition characterized by the inability to stop or control alcohol use despite social, occupational or health consequences.2 Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2, or ALDH2, is an enzyme that plays a key role in metabolizing alcohol.DCR-AUD has been shown to induce long-lasting liver-specific ALDH2 messenger RNA (mRNA) knockdown in nonclinical studies. By silencing ALDH2 in the liver and interrupting the alcohol metabolic pathway, DCR-AUD has the potential to induce real-time physiological feedback to help individuals seeking treatment for AUD regain control over harmful levels of alcohol use.