Agrochemical lead optimization by scaffold hopping

Scaffold hopping, the exchange of a specific portion of a potential active ingredient with another substructure with the aim of finding isofunctional molecular structures with significantly different molecular backbones, often offers the chance in lead discovery or optimization to mitigate problems related to toxicity, intellectual property, and insufficient potency or stability. Scaffold hopping tools such as isosteric ring replacement including 1,3 nitrogen shift and cyclic imine-amide isosterism, but also ring opening and ring closure approaches, functional group isosterism, reversion of functional groups, chain shortening, chain lengthening, and scaffolds delivered by natural products, have become a permanent fixture of the innovation and optimization process in crop protection research. Their appropriate use will be explained through examples of success stories in the field of agrochemistry. Analogies to, but also differences from, the main categories of scaffold hopping in medicinal drug discovery are discussed. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.