Ligand‐based computer‐aided pesticide design. A review of applications of the CoMFA and CoMSIA methodologies

An overview is given of the CoMFA (comparative molecular field analysis) and CoMSIA (comparative molecular similarity indices analysis) methodologies that are established ligand‐based molecular design tools widely used by medicinal and pesticide chemists. In the absence of a three‐dimensional structure of the target biopolymer, CoMFA and CoMSIA often provide a practical solution to an otherwise intractable problem of proper characterization of ligand–receptor interactions. These techniques are especially important in agrochemistry, where the number of known molecular structures of pesticide targets is limited. The use of CoMFA and CoMSIA in the agrochemical field for modelling the interactions of insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and herbicide safeners with their target binding sites is illustrated by using some selected published work. The CoMFA and CoMSIA models developed have been used successfully to map the properties of unknown receptors, construct hypotheses for ligand–receptor interactions, optimize lead structures, design novel active compounds, and predict biological activities. The application of CoMFA by the present authors for deriving a binding site hypothesis for dichloroacetamide‐type herbicide safeners is described in somewhat more detail. © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry