Synthesis and insecticidal evaluation of novel sulfide-containing amide derivatives as potential ryanodine receptor modulators

Abstract With the aim of discovering new bioactive pesticides for crop protection, a series of novel sulfide-containing amide derivatives A were efficiently synthesized via a strategy of modifying the “amide” structure of anthranilic diamide insecticides. The single-crystal structures of A2-3 and A4-5 were firstly reported. The bioassay results showed that most of the synthesized compounds display moderate to high insecticidal activities. Particularly, some sulfone-containing compounds, e.g., A2-3, A3-3 and A6-3, not only possessed favorable lethality rate (50%–100%) against P. xylostella at a concentration of 0.1 mg/L, but also held good activities towards a variety of agricultural pests such as M. separata, C. pipiens pallen, H. armigera and O. nubilalis; the larvicidal activities of A4-1 and A6-1 towards P. xylostella were close to that of chlorantraniliprole at 0.01 mg/L. The calcium imaging experiments revealed that the representative compounds A2-3 and A6-3 are potential ryanodine receptor (RyR) modulators. The structure–activity relationships were discussed in detail. These results provide useful information for further design and development of novel insecticides.