Synthesis and in silico evaluation of potential insecticide activity of benzamides

Insect resistance to pesticides, resulting from factors like the frequency of resistance alleles, pest management practices and cross-resistance, provoke loss to agriculture and consequences on public health. The development of alternative pesticides could help to circumvent this significant limitation.
Carboxamide compounds have shown insecticidal effects against insect pest such as Spodoptera litura, or mosquitoes Aedes aegypti; the pyrazole carboxamide chlorantraniliprole and the benzamide broflanilide have been placed on the market by agrochemical companies.
Considering the above-mentioned facts, and in continuation of our recent interests in pesticides, in the present work a series of benzamide derivatives was synthesised in order to predict their potential as insecticides. In addition, an in silico inverted virtual screening protocol considering the 13 common insecticide protein targets was used to evaluate the potential insecticide activity of these molecules and identify the most likely targets. The results suggest important clues for the development of this class of derivatives as alternative insecticides.