Importance of Physicochemical Properties for the Design of New Pesticides

The physicochemical properties of candidate compounds play important roles in the design of new pesticides. Pesticides must be absorbed by pests, be transported to the target site, and then interact with proteins. Hydrophobicity is very important for these processes. Log P, where P is the partition coefficient in the 1-octanol/water system, is commonly used as a hydrophobic descriptor and correlates with membrane permeation and transport. It was recently reported that permeability by the parallel artificial membrane permeation assay (PAMPA) could be used to predict human oral absorption of passively transported compounds. PAMPA, which is a rapid high-throughput screening system, may be useful to predict pesticide absorption because PAMPA permeability can be calculated using log P and other parameters. Electronic and structural properties as well as hydrophobicity are important factors for protein-ligand interaction. To show the importance of physicochemical properties, the classic QSAR and CoMFA of neonicotinoids and prediction of bioavailability of pesticides in terms of membrane permeability in comparison with drugs are described.